Forgiving and Forgetting
by AThousandTimesMore
Summary: After a summer of tragedy she tried to forget, Lilly mostly keeps to herself and her art. Until the new girl down the street catches her eye. What will this new girl reveal about herself? And what will she reveal about Lilly? Full Summary Inside
1. Chapter One: Interpretation

_**Full Summary: Lilly Truscott avoids every memory she has of everything that she did before her junior year of high school, with few exceptions, because almost everything she did had to do with **_**her.**_** The one thing she doesn't avoid is art, the one thing that gave her refuge in a time of trouble. Going into her junior year, she plans on keeping to herself and her art, as usual, with the exception of her best friend, Oliver Oaken, the school's source of gossip. That is, until she sees the girl who moved in just down the street. Who is this girl? Why does she seem so afraid of people finding out about her past? And why is Lilly so attracted to her?**_

It was the first day of school Lilly's junior year of high school. She skateboarded down the sidewalk, passing a house that had a SOLD sign in the front yard and several moving vans parked in front of the house and in the driveway. Glancing up from the sidewalk, Lilly noticed a girl her age walking out to a silver Porsche.

The girl stood in her driveway, book bag slung over her shoulder as she stared at Lilly. She was wearing what looked like designer clothes that were made to look like they were old: a pair of ripped jeans, layered graphic tees, and a pair of converse sneakers. Lilly looked away as their eyes met and sped up, leaving her staring after her.

Her eyes stayed in Lilly's mind all the way to school. They were a light brown color, almost an amber. It was disturbing for her how she remembered what her eyes looked like after they had connected for a span of three seconds. They were different from anyone else's eyes she had ever seen. While everyone stared at her disgustedly, almost accusingly, her eyes were curious and… sad. As if she had just endured a great hardship and she was still recovering form it.

She shook her head, clearing her mind as she reached Seaview High School. Her best friend, Oliver Oaken, was leaning against his car, an old Mustang he had managed to get for only a few hundred dollars the year before. He waved to Lilly when he saw her and she picked up her board, pushing her way through the crowd of students that was heading into the school. Grinning, he fist-bumped her hand and gestured to his car.

"Do you like the paint job?" he asked, and Lilly noticed that it had been painted black over the rusty red it had been two weeks before. "I finally got enough money to get a good paint job. As soon as I get my paycheck next week, I'll be able to replace a few parts in the engine and she'll run as smoothly as if she had been bought brand new!"

"It looks good!" Lilly said, dropping her skateboard on the ground and starting to do a few tricks out of boredom. "Hey, um, do you know about any new kids this year? Did you see anyone touring the school when you were here last week?"

"Yeah, 'course I did," Oliver said indifferently.

"But I need… there's this girl, she just moved her, right onto Grandview Road," Lilly said.

Oliver looked up at her curiously. "This one different?" he asked sharply. "Lilly, you have to be careful. Remember what happened last time? She…"

"Yes, I know, I know," she said impatiently. "She really was different, though. I could see it, Oliver! She had wavy brown hair, brown eyes, thin, a little taller than me. Did you see her? Do you know who she is?"

"Did she look like that?" Oliver asked, pointing at a very familiar silver Porsche that was pulling into the parking lot. The girl was sitting in the passenger's seat while a boy pulled up in front of the school, dropping her off. She rolled her eyes as he said something, gave him a hug, and got out of the car, glancing up at the sign for the school before heading into the building.

"Yeah, her," Lilly whispered, following her with her eyes.

"That, my dear Lillian Truscott, is Miley Stewart, seventeen years old, junior year, and coincidentally, in our homeroom," Oliver said, smiling at Lilly. "She moved from Nashville, Tennessee this year after something disastrous happened or something like that. The boy who dropped her off was her brother, Jackson Stewart, twenty-one years old and going to Pepperdine University for biochemistry."

"What else do you know about her?" Lilly asked as she picked up her skateboard and headed towards the entrance of the school with him by her side.

"Um, she's in our homeroom, but I already said that," Oliver said, scrunching his eyebrows together. "She got straight A's in all of her classes at her old school, most of her family lives back in Nashville with the exception of someone who lives in Washington state, I don't know who. She wants to go into law when she graduates from high school. She said a lawyer, but she doesn't know what type she wants to be."

Lilly nodded appreciatively. He knew everything about everyone in their school and it was common for people to go to him for gossip to spread around the school in revenge. He always managed to be in the right place at the right time to hear information on people. Lilly helped him get information, as well, because people ignored her and even forget she was there.

"It sounds like you got a private interview with her," Lilly said. "See if you can find out anything else about her. If she's, um, you know. That would be helpful. I'm gonna try to be friends with her. She looks like a nice person and I don't want her to get caught up with the wrong group of people, namely Amber and Ashley."

"She isn't the type of person to get caught up with them," Oliver said immediately, heading over to his locker and throwing his book bag inside. Lilly opened her own locker, throwing her skateboard inside and slamming it closed again. "She said that she would stay away from social groups and try to stay out of trouble. It seems like she's the type of person who likes to keep in the shadows. Just your type of girl, Lilly. But you're sounding kind of manipulative, you know? You shouldn't mess around with her if you aren't going to honestly be friends with her if she doesn't like you."

"I know, Oliver, okay?" Lilly said angrily. "I went through all that, remember? I would never do that to someone else, especially her, okay? Are you happy?"

He backed away a little, putting his hands in the air in surrender. "Okay, okay, just making sure. Hey, there's Brittany, I'm gonna go say hello and escort her to homeroom, okay? I'll see if I can find anything else. Are you going to be okay without me here or do you want to come with me?"

Lilly could tell Oliver wanted to be alone with Brittany, his girlfriend of seven months, so she just waved him away. "Go say hi and give her a kissy face," she said. "I'll be fine." She watched as Oliver pushed his way towards Brittany and kissed her lightly on the cheek, making her smile. It would have comforted Lilly to have Oliver be with her the whole first day considering her past with first days of school, but she could survive without him for fifteen minutes.

"Hey, Lilly, where's your girlfriend?" someone called out only a few seconds after Oliver disappeared from sight. "I heard she moved away because she thought you were so disgusting. What did you do to her? Are you really Medusa underneath that mask you're wearing?"

Clenching her teeth and her fists, Lilly moved down the hall, ignoring the comments. This was why she didn't want to be alone. People were afraid to make mean comments to her when Oliver was around because he could spread gossip like wildfire considering all he knew. But once he was out of hearing range, the teasing commenced because everyone knew that Lilly wouldn't run to Oliver complaining about what they said. She was too proud to do something like that.

The comments continued as she walked down the hall, so she slipped into her homeroom, grateful for the silence that reigned in the classroom of Miss Burbidge. The teacher could be mean, but that's why Lilly liked her so much. No one hung around in her homeroom for longer than they had to, so there was often no one there. Lilly headed to the side of the room by the windows, dumping her book bag on the ground and collapsing in her seat.

"Miss Truscott how was your summer?" Miss Burbidge asked, looking up from her writing. "I trust it was enjoyable."

Lilly didn't say anything. When Miss Burbidge talked to you, you didn't answer because all of her questions were rhetorical unless she told you to answer them. She looked warily at the teacher, knowing that if she talked to you, she had an alternate intention.

"I was wondering if you would show Miss Stewart around today," Miss Burbidge continued, gesturing to Miley Stewart, the girl Lilly and Oliver had been talking about earlier. She stepped towards Lilly and away from Miss Burbidge's desk. "She's new to the school, and although she has already been given a tour, I'm sure it would be comforting for a veteran to show her around, don't you think? I've already looked at your class schedules and you have the same classes both days. It seems you both have the same interests. Miley, this is Lilly, and Lilly, this is Miley."

Miley smiled tentatively at Lilly, who smiled back at her. "I'm Lilly," she said, holding out her hand and shaking Miley's hand. "My full name is Lillian Truscott, but everyone calls me Lilly."

"Miley Stewart," the brunette said, shyly looking away.

"So this is your first year here?" Lilly asked, motioning for Miley to sit down at the desk next to her.

"Yeah, my family just moved from Tennessee last week," Miley said. "My dad wanted to make sure I was here for school and he didn't want me to start my first day with jet lag. We just moved onto Grandview Road. Wait, you're the girl who skateboarded past my house this morning, aren't you?"

"That's me," Lilly said, nodding. "I don't have a car and I don't really like to ask for a ride to school everyday, so I just skateboard to school. You're the girl with the Porsche, aren't you?"

"It's my dad's, but he's letting my brother use it to drive to Pepperdine," Miley said. "He's going for biochemistry. I'm surprised he even got in."

"So did you move to be close to him or did you just want the city experience?" Lilly asked. "I mean, we're right by Los Angeles, so you can get the full Hollywood, celebrity, and movie star experience on a normal weekend to go shopping."

Miley looked away, clearly uncomfortable, and Lilly was afraid that she had insulted her. "Actually, um, we moved because there was some stuff that happened back in Tennessee and my dad thought a change of scene would do me good," Miley whispered after a moment. "He's hoping that moving to the city will help."

"Sorry if I'm being pushy," Lilly said.

"No, it's fine," Miley said. "It's just… it isn't something I really like to talk about. I'm not really used to having people talk to me and stuff, so I guess you could say I'm a little socially awkward. I don't really like taking the spotlight."

The bell rang and kids started filing into the classroom. Oliver spotted them and sat down behind Lilly, dumping his book bag on his desk. He looked at Lilly with raised eyebrows and glanced over at Miley.

"Oh, yeah, Miley, this is Oliver Oaken, Oliver, this is Miley Stewart," Lilly said, introducing them to each other. "Oliver, I'm going to be showing Miley around for the next couple days. Miley, Oliver is the kid who knows everything that's going on in this school. If you want to know something about someone, just go to him and he can hook you up. It can come in handy sometimes, let me tell you."

"Nice to meet you," Oliver said, grinning at her. "And don't listen to a thing Lilly says. I don't know _everything_ about everyone. Just most of it."

Miley's eyes widened as he laughed and Lilly turned around and glared at him, cutting his laughing off instantly. "Don't worry," she said to Miley. "He doesn't try to dig stuff up on anyone. It's just… he hears a lot of stuff that he isn't supposed to. If you stick to the shadows, a lot of people talk like you aren't there. And he won't start dishing out information on you if you don't want him to."

"You have to pay…" Oliver started, but immediately stopped when Lilly glared at him again. "I mean, um, you're Lilly's friend, so you're my friend, and I don't dish out stuff about my friends, you know? Besides, if you stay out of certain people's ways, then people won't be coming to me for info on you, anyways."

The second bell rang and Miss Burbidge stood up, clearing her throat for the class to quiet down. Lilly ignored her, still facing Oliver. "And if any information makes it out of your mouth to anyone except for me without my express permission, I will make sure that you _pay_ for it," she growled, turning around to face the front of the classroom as Miss Burbidge started to call out names for attendance and handed out class schedules.

Announcements came on over the intercom and the dismissal bell rang, signaling that everyone could go to their first class. Lilly and Miley stood up together as Oliver muttered things about his class schedule.

"I don't get why I couldn't get the same classes as you two," Oliver complained as they walked down the hall. "And I heard Mr. Coleridge for calculus is horrible. You guys both have Mrs. Van Hogan and she's supposed to be the best. Although one of the seniors last year, Kelly Santiago, failed out…"

"Oliver, I honestly don't care," Lilly said, noticing that Miley was starting to get uncomfortable. "First of all, she's already graduated and probably took the summer course, and second, I really am not in the mood for gossip right now, okay? Hey Miley, we're going to be passing the cafeteria on the way to art class, do you want to stop by real quick and check it out or just go straight to class?"

Miley looked surprised that Lilly was giving her choices. "Um, I kind of took the tour last week, so I know where the major stuff is, I just don't know where the classrooms are."

"Okay," Lilly said brightly, shrugging as they bypassed the cafeteria. "We'll be early for class, then, and I can introduce you to Mr. Freidovsky. And Oliver'll have time to say hello to Brittany again. Not that he hasn't already said hello to her enough this morning."

"You just don't understand because you aren't dating," Oliver said grumpily, stuffing his schedule in his pocket. "It's like she's the only one in the universe besides me and…"

Lilly rolled her eyes. "You can just ignore him now," she said to Miley, who seemed to be paying strict attention to him. "He'll get distracted by something he hears soon enough. That always happens. Either that or he'll see Brittany and run halfway down the hall to come to a stop in front of her and just start stuttering." She smiled at Miley who smiled back at her tentatively and looked down at the ground. "Hey, am I talking too much?"

"No," Miley said quickly. "It's just… I'm not really used to this whole thing. My school back in Tennessee was a lot smaller than this, and there wasn't as much drive to bring other people down with gossip and stuff."

"Oliver is a good guy," Lilly said, turning into Mr. Freidovsky's art classroom and sitting down at one of the tables. "It's just… that's how he makes most of his money, by people paying him for information on other people or paying him to keep quiet about certain things about themselves and their friends. He has a job at a car repair shop, but he doesn't make much."

"Would he… ever tell anything about me?" Miley asked, sitting down hesitantly.

"No, not unless you told him to," Lilly said. "Besides, people aren't willing to spend money to find out about the new girl, no offense. They'll only spend money if you've done something to them or if you're really getting on their nerves. Just try not to look like a know-it-all, stay out of the popular girls' way, and you'll be fine."

The bell rang and everyone took a seat, staring expectantly at Mr. Freidovsky, who was sitting at his desk sketching in a sketchpad. He looked up after ten minutes, a surprised expression on his face. "Is it class time already?" he asked, looking at his watch. "Well, welcome to art class then and I'll just assume everyone is here. What we're going to be doing today is seeing what you have in you. If you have something that you want to draw, paint, or sculpt, go ahead and do it. And if you need an idea, just come and ask me, or one of the veterans. They'll point themselves out to you, I'm sure. Well, supplies are over there, you have an hour, so get started."

Miley looked helplessly at Lilly, who was already standing up to go get supplies. "If you don't have any inspiration, just take something from your life and use that," Lilly said. "Like… you could use your move, for example. Just paint, draw, or sculpt what you feel and you'll do fine. As long as you try and don't draw stick figures, you'll be good, okay?"

She headed over to the supplies, grabbing a sketchpad, some graphite pencils, and some good colored pencils, and sat down to start working. Miley took her example, watching Lilly for a few moments before starting herself. The front of the classroom quieted down because that was where the more serious students worked, while the back of the classroom was filled with laughter and talking.

Forty-five minutes passed and Mr. Freidovsky gave the fifteen-minute warning, telling everyone with paints and clay to start cleaning up and those who were drawing to start wrapping up their pieces. He then walked around the room, viewing everyone's artwork, giving pointers here and there, complimenting some people, and just shaking his head at other people.

He came to Lilly and Miley's table last, looking at Lilly's drawing first. It was a rough sketch of a cat staring out of the page, its brown eyes piercing whoever looked at it. Mr. Freidovsky studied it for several minutes before nodding approvingly at Lilly. "I assume you're going to try and finish it before next class," he said. "You can go ahead and take the good pencils in the supply closet like you usually do. And don't even pretend that you don't, Miss Truscott, because I caught you sneaking out with them the last week of classes last year."

"Thanks Mr. Freidovsky," Lilly said, blushing as she took the sketchpad back from him. "I have a couple pieces at home that I want to show you, too. I've been working on my drawing and painting skills over the summer like you told me to and I think it's really working."

"Good, good," he said, nodding approvingly. He then turned to Miley. "And you are…?"

"Miley Stewart," Miley said shyly, handing her sketchpad to him as he extended his hand to take it. "I messed up on that bit with the green; I thought I was using a different pencil…"

"You never mess up in art," Mr. Freidovsky said. "It's all meant to be." He was quiet as he studied her drawing, his eyebrows rising so high that they almost disappeared into his hairline. Lilly smiled encouragingly at Miley, who was getting nervous.

"Don't worry," Lilly whispered. "The longer he takes at looking at your art, the better it is. And this it's really good that he's looking this long at your first art piece."

He finally set the sketchpad down at the table and Lilly gasped in astonishment when she saw Miley's drawing. It was an intricate drawing of a dead tree being struck by lightning and surrounded by gray dirt, which gradually grew brown as it got farther way from the tree and sprouting grass at the edge of the page. The part Miley had pointed out that she had messed up on was a branch of the tree at the top that sported a few green leaves.

"This is really good," he said. "It symbolizes, for me, someone going through a hardship and is surrounded by even more hardship, but they can just see the edges of happiness. And while they seem like they've been beaten down to the point where they can't fight anymore, they still have a small amount of hope in them. Just enough to keep living. That's what that small amount of green is at the top of the tree. Why don't you go ahead and sign and date it. Keep the sketchpad, and Lilly, when you get those pencils, give a set to Miss Stewart here as well."

Lilly nodded and turned to Miley as Mr. Freidovsky walked away. "This drawing is amazing!" she exclaimed quietly. "Did you take drawing classes before this or something? Because you're absolutely amazing!"

"What was with his interpretation thing?" Miley whispered, glancing over at Mr. Freidovsky.

"He does that with a lot of people's artwork," Lilly said, shrugging. "It isn't unusual. It's his way of telling you that he really likes what you've done and that you should continue doing it. If you have time tonight, I would seriously take some time and go somewhere quiet and just sketch or something. That's what I do every night."

"Okay," Miley said quietly, standing up as the bell rang. "Um, where are these colored pencils that he was talking about?"

"Here, I'll get them," Lilly said, going into the supply closet. Someone walked up behind her and touched her on the shoulder, making her jump. She turned around to see Mr. Freidovsky standing behind her looking at her gravely. "Look, I'm sorry about the colored pencils last year," Lilly said quickly.

"This isn't about that," he said. "It's just… your new friend has a lot of emotional turmoil within her, I can tell by looking at her. She seems like she's a quiet girl, but she has a lot going on inside of her. I have a feeling that this school will break her if someone isn't there to help her out. With some of the students here… they won't be very kind. Do me a favor and watch out for her until she gets used to it here and sorts things out, okay? I would hate to have a girl with her skill go to waste because some kids were being mean to her."

"Sure thing, Mr. Freidovsky," Lilly said, grabbing the two packs of pencils. "I was planning on sticking really close to her the first couple days, anyways, and she seems like a nice person so far. I'll do as you say. And do you mind if I grab a paint set, too? I don't have enough money to get some from the store and I have the canvases all set up at home, too. There's this idea that's been bugging me…"

"Go ahead," he said gently. "And tell Mister Oaken I said hello. I notice that he hasn't enrolled for class with me this year."

"He got Miss Smith this year," Lilly explained, emerging from the closet. "He was really upset; ranting all over the places about how he didn't get the teachers he wanted. I'll tell him for you. Thanks for the pencils and paint."

She headed over to Miley and handed her the pencil set, both of them heading out of the classroom. Lilly was surprised to see Miley pull out the sketchpad and stare at her drawing before the bell in the next class. This girl was a lot more complicated than she had suspected her to be.

_**I promised you guys that I was going to start another story, so here it is. I know, surprising that I posted it so quickly. Well, I'll probably get the next chapter up in the New Year. I'm going out of town and probably won't have internet access. I'll see what I can do, but I won't promise anything. REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!!!! Thanks!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	2. Chapter Two: Inspiration

_**Here's the next chapter.**_

Lilly grabbed her painting supplies, heading downstairs and outside to where Oliver was waiting for her. She piled her stuff in the backseat of his car and got in the passenger's seat, nodding for him to leave as she buckled up. He turned onto the road heading out towards a deserted part of the beach.

"So why do you need to be out at the beach to do this?" he asked. "You've never had to go to the beach before. You've always painted from that balcony in your room."

"I've had this idea for awhile, but I haven't had anyone to paint in it," Lilly said. "I mean, yeah, I could paint myself or something, but it wouldn't be the same. But now I have the perfect person and I need the perfect scene. This is just the place, too. I'm gonna do the abandoned pier. I can't wait to show Mr. Freidovsky tomorrow. He's gonna love it, I just know it."

"You could've painted me," Oliver said, clearly insulted.

"No, it wouldn't've worked," Lilly said automatically. "First of all, I need a girl, and second of all, she needs to be a specific… type of girl. It can't just be anyone, Oliver. This needs to be special."

He sighed, turning onto an abandoned beach, Lilly's pier extending into the water a few hundred feet down the way. She got out of the car, grabbing her stuff from the backseat, and headed down the beach, setting up her easel a few yards away from the pier. "I'll call you in four hours," she said. "If I don't call you by then, you can come and drag me away from my painting."

"What if you hit me?" Oliver asked. "That's what happened last time I tried to drag you away from one of your paintings."

"Just do it," Lilly sighed, picking up a pencil, staring out at the pier, and starting to sketch on her canvas. "Now go away. I can't work efficiently if I know someone is staring at me working."

She heard him leave and her arm immediately loosened up as she began to draw the structure of the pier. When she finished the general outline, she picked up a thin paintbrush and started to paint in the darker parts of the painting. She then worked on the water and the sun setting in the distance, seeming to splash the colors across her canvas as she hurried to finish it before all her light disappeared with the sun. Turning around, she saw Oliver standing behind her, his hands in his pockets as he watched her with a look of curiosity on his face.

"You've gone over by about thirty minutes," he said, stepping forward. "But I didn't have the heart to tear you away from your painting. This is the first time I've really seen you happy for awhile."

Lilly smiled at him, cleaning her brushes and closing up her paint. "It's the first time I've felt happy in awhile," she said. "Ever since… _she_ left. I think I've been sitting around my house for too long, Oliver. I need to get out of there. Are you doing anything this weekend? Cause I was thinking I could take my sketchpad and pencils into the city and I could do some drawing there."

"I have to work Friday night, but I'm free all Saturday," Oliver said, watching as Lilly carefully set her canvas on the ground and folded up her easel. She handed her painting supplies to Oliver and picked up her canvas, following him to the car. "Actually, I'm supposed to take Brittany out on Saturday, and I was already planning on taking her to the city, so you could just tag along, I could drop you off someplace, and after our date is finished, I could pick you up and take you back home."

"No, Oliver, I don't want to intrude on your date," Lilly said quickly, opening the back door for him and getting in the front seat, gently balancing her canvas on her lap and making sure the colors didn't run into each other. "Brittany would probably be upset, too, because I always tag along with you guys. I don't want to ruin things for the two of you. I'll just catch the bus."

"Are you sure?" he asked as they drove back towards Lilly's house. "I could call her and…"

"I'm sure," Lilly said firmly. "Maybe I'll invite Miley to go with me. She hasn't been here long so she probably hasn't been to the city yet. I can give her a tour while I look for somewhere to draw. Really, Oliver, don't worry about it, I can always do something else if it doesn't work out."

He sighed and nodded, turning into her driveway and helping her bring her things up to her room. She set up her easel, setting her canvas on it and turning back to Oliver only to see him looking around in interest. Most of her walls were covered in canvases she had painted over the summer. Almost all of them were views of the ocean with dark clouds on the horizon, covering the rays of the sun.

"You've really been working hard on this art stuff," he said, spinning around to take everything. "I didn't know… wow; these are really good, Lilly. Do you think you're going to try to get into art school?"

She shrugged, picking up a pencil and starting to sketch a figure standing on the very edge of the pier she had been painting. "I don't know," she said. "It depends on what Mr. Freidovsky says. Yeah, I really want to go to art school, but he only recommends people who are really serious about their art."

"I think you're serious about your art," Oliver said. "All you have to do to show him that you're serious is drag him into your room and he'll write out a recommendation to Yale School of Art."

"That isn't even funny," Lilly said, whirling around to face him. "Oliver, you know that Yale is one of the best schools in the country and that I have no chance of getting in. And yeah, your dad used to teach there and probably could hook something up for me, but really, Oliver, there's no need…"

"Lilly, I'm serious," Oliver said, cutting her off. "Look at these. And I don't even need to grab one of your sketchbooks to know that you're absolutely amazing at drawing. I think you have a chance of getting in. There's this art professor my dad knows at Pepperdine who's offering drawing and painting classes in a couple weeks. I think you should go, Lilly."

"You know that I don't have the money, Oliver," Lilly sighed, turning back to her painting. "I would have preferred if you hadn't brought it up. Now it's going to be on my mind for awhile…"

"That's just the thing," Oliver said excitedly. "It's for high school students, and there's a scholarship sort of thing for one student. All you have to do is send in a painting or drawing along with your name, phone number, and address, and you just have to wait to see if he chose you. If there's more than one person who he thinks would really benefit from his lessons, he'll contact them and see if he can make arrangements. Lilly, this is an opportunity that you can't pass up. I stopped by Mr. Freidovsky's class today and told him about the class and he said to bring it up to you. He seriously thinks you could get in."

"Did he really say that?" Lilly asked, turning to him hopefully.

"Yeah, he said you and Miley both have a really good chance, and a couple other people would probably benefit from it but wouldn't get the scholarship thing if you two sent in some of your artwork," Oliver said. "I have the application papers right here, so if you want to fill them out tonight and take them to Mr. Freidovsky tomorrow to get a recommendation from him, I think you would really like it."

He held some papers out to her and she took them, looking down at them and around at the canvases hanging on her walls. "Do you really think I could get into this?" she whispered, looking at Oliver uncertainly.

"I don't think you could, I know you could," Oliver said. "Come on, you'll beat yourself up over this if you don't do it. And Mr. Freidovsky will be really disappointed in you, too."

"Fine, I'll do it," Lilly snapped, throwing the papers on her bed and turning back to her painting and opening her paints. She started painting the girl in the picture, unaware of Oliver standing behind her and watching her quietly. Most of the girl's body was facing the sunset, but her head and shoulders were turned to face the viewer. Her hair was blowing in an invisible wind so the only part of her face that could be seen was her amber-colored eyes. Lilly carefully painted her clothes in and stepped back to view her masterpiece.

"That's amazing," Oliver said, startling Lilly out of her reverie.

"What are you still doing here?" Lilly asked, turning to face him. "You have to leave. If my mom catches you here this late without her permission, I'm going to have to explain to her all over again that you're my best friend and that I would never do anything with you."

"But…" he started.

"Leave," Lilly said, shoving him out of her bedroom door, slamming it behind him, and then pulling the bolt across the door. She stared at her painting, smiling slightly as she looked at it. It was the best one she had ever done and she was immensely proud of it. She was going to have to have Oliver pick her up to take her to school tomorrow morning so her canvas wouldn't get ruined.

Taking her cell phone out of her pocket, she saw that she had several missed calls, two of them from Oliver, one from Brittany, and one from a number she didn't recognize. Taking a slip of paper out of her pocket that had Miley's number on it, she compared the two numbers and realized Miley had tried to call her. She quickly entered Miley's number in her contacts and then called her, pacing her room as she waited for the brunette to pick up her phone.

"Hello?" Miley answered.

"Hey, Miley, this is Lilly Truscott from school," Lilly answered, smiling as she heard Miley's voice on the other end of the line. "You called earlier and I missed it."

"Oh, yeah, um, I was wondering maybe if you wanted a ride to school tomorrow," Miley said quickly. "I'm gonna be driving and I wanted to show you some stuff before school. I could pick you up and drop you off wherever after school, too."

"That'd be great!" Lilly exclaimed. "I was going to ask Oliver to give me a ride tomorrow because I'm bringing some of my canvases in to show Mr. Freidovsky. Um, you need my address, right?"

"Yeah," Miley said.

Lilly gave Miley her address quickly, her grin getting bigger and bigger the longer she stayed on the phone with the brunette. "So what time are you going to be picking me up?" she asked.

"Um, school starts at eight, so I'll pick you up around seven so we can get there early," Miley said. "Is that okay or do you want to be picked up later? I don't care either way, as long as we aren't late for school. My dad would never let my drive to school again."

"Seven is great," Lilly said. "Hey, um, I was wondering if you wanted to come to the city with me on Saturday. I have some drawing that I want to do there and I could show you around a bit, since you haven't been in Malibu long. I was planning on catching the bus at six in the morning since the next bus leaves at eleven in the morning and that would be too late to really get any good drawings in. There are some pretty good restaurants and cafés there…"

"Hey, I want to come, but I have to ask my dad first," Miley said, laughing. "You really don't have to be nervous asking me, okay?"

"Psh, I'm not nervous," Lilly lied.

"You're babbling. People babble when they're nervous."

"Okay, maybe I'm nervous," Lilly admitted, sitting down on her bed. "It's just… you're the first real friend I've had besides Oliver and I don't want to mess this up."

"Hey, you're my first real friend, too," Miley said. "My friends at my old school were all idiots and they were only worried about… stuff that really wasn't good for me. I got caught up in a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't good, some more stuff happened, and we moved to Malibu. I don't want that to happen to me all over again. My dad wants me to be careful with the friends I'm making, but you seem like a good person."

"Thanks," Lilly whispered.

"I'll tell you if I can go into L.A. with you tomorrow morning when I pick you up," Miley said. "My dad is at a meeting right now for work and he won't be home until a lot later."

"Okay," Lilly said. "I'll see you tomorrow morning then?"

"Yup, tomorrow morning," Miley said. "Bye."

"Bye," Lilly whispered as Miley hung up.

She laughed and fell back on her bed, looking up at her ceiling as she let the happiness from talking to Miley fill her up. It was almost unbelievable that Miley would think they were good enough friends to give her a ride to school the next day and then possibly go to L.A. with her the day after that. She fell asleep with a smile on her face, thinking of Miley.

_**Thank you to all the reviewers. And I'm sorry to the people who want to review anonymously or don't have an account. I didn't know that I had blocked anonymous reviews and when I saw that, I immediately changed it, so you can go ahead and review!!! Thank you to makurutenoh, Alchemist PAC, Lovergirl242, AlvinFan07, and Sophi20 for reviewing. And one small question for Alchemist PAC. What does that one line that isn't in English mean? Lol Seriously, I really want to know. Thank you to all of my reviewers! I'll try to get the next chapter up next week, the week after at the latest, and probably a one-shot as well. Thank you all again!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	3. Chapter Three: Portrait

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!!!**_

There was a knock on the front door as Lilly grabbed her book bag and slung it over her shoulder. She made her way to the front door, opening it and grabbing the stack of canvases she was going to show Mr. Freidovsky. Miley was standing in the doorway, biting her lip nervously.

"Hey," Lilly said brightly. "Thanks for giving me… whoa, is that your car?"

She was staring at the black corvette parked in her driveway. Miley nodded and looked down at her feet. "My dad bought it for me for my sixteenth birthday," she whispered. "My brother has the Porsche, but my dad has to use it since his car is still back in Tennessee. He's going to sell his old car and get a new one, but until then, my brother has to share."

"This is so cool!" Lilly yelled. "You never told me that you had a corvette. Whoa, there are going to be a lot of jealous people at school. And Oliver won't have any fun telling you about his Mustang once he finds out that you have an almost brand new corvette. But he's going to be hounding you to tell him everything about it. Be prepared to answer questions about how many miles it has on it, how fast it can go, and how often you change your tires."

"Changing tires?" Miley asked, wrinkling her nose.

Lilly laughed. "It's an Oliver thing. Once you get to know him, you'll understand that he can be a complete doughnut sometimes. Come on, let's get to school. I want to drop these off in Mr. Freidovsky's classroom before everyone gets there and knocks them around."

"Do you need help carrying those to the car?" Miley asked. "Here, I can put them in the trunk for you. There isn't anything in there and it's pretty big, so they should be safe. You can go ahead and get in the passenger's seat."

Lilly handed the canvases carefully to Miley and watched her as she set them in the trunk. She then got into the passengers seat, looking around excitedly at the all leather interior and flipping through the songs on the iPod that Miley hooked up to the car. "This is amazing," Lilly said, settling on a Hannah Montana song. "You know, I never expected to like Hannah Montana when I first saw her on TV, but her music isn't that bad."

Miley smiled weakly. "I really like her," she whispered, putting the car into gear. "This is _Don't Wanna Be Torn_, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's it. I like her a lot, too," Lilly said, looking through Miley's other songs. "It's kind of weird that you have Hannah Montana and Linkin Park right next to each other on your favorites playlist, though."

The brunette shrugged. "Linkin Park's music inspires me," she said. "I… I write a little of my own music, and I like to listen to a bunch of different types of music. I listen to country, rock, pop, blues, jazz, classical, electronic, hip hop, rap, metal, world, and I'm pretty sure my brother snuck some of his screamo on there, although I haven't managed to come across it too much."

"Holy crap, how many songs do you have on this thing?" Lilly asked.

"I think I'm up to 8,573 but I can't be sure," Miley said. "And yes, I've listened to every single one of those songs on there. Most of them more than a few times. I listen to music a lot because I spend a lot of time by myself. It's sort of my sanctuary. Somewhere I can retreat to when I'm not feeling comfortable. All I need to do is put my headphones on, turn on my iPod, and I'm good to go. It's nice to have a place to go wherever I am whenever I want."

"Wow," Lilly whispered. "That's a lot of songs. Did you handpick every one of the songs or did you just go online and buy a bunch of random songs?"

"I had a lot of help from my dad and my brother," Miley said. "My dad recommended a lot of the country, rock, blues, and jazz while my brother recommended a lot of the electronic, hip hop, rap, and metal. I went through all of the songs and picked what I did and didn't want eventually, but I was very dependant on them for my music for a little while. I did the pop and world music myself. Here, where should I park or doesn't it matter?"

"Just pull into this space right here," Lilly said, pointing to a space reserved for students, a space that would be seen by every student in the school. "Do you mind if you help me bring my canvases to Mr. Freidovsky's classroom?"

"Yeah, of course," Miley said, popping open the trunk and taking them out. "You're going to have to lead the way, though. I may have a good memory for music, but I'm horrible with directions. I'm just like my dad in that matter, except for the fact that I admit it and actually stop and ask for directions when I'm lost."

"It's just men," Lilly said, smiling and shaking her head. "Oliver has the same problem. He never stops when we get lost. I've had to call Triple A before because we were lost in the middle of the city and he refused to stop and ask someone where something was."

Lilly led Miley to Mr. Freidovsky's classroom, grateful that there were only a few people in the hallways, most of them being teachers, and those who were students being too uninterested in them to even spare them a glance. They arrived in Mr. Freidovsky's classroom to see him opening up the shades over the windows and letting much more light in than had been let in the class before.

"Are we doing self portraits today, Mr. Freidovsky?" Lilly asked as she walked into the classroom.

"No, we're doing portraits with partners," he said, turning to her with a smile. "I think this will be good for your portfolio, Miss Truscott. I assume these canvases Miss Stewart is carrying are the ones you said you would bring in. I'll look over these and see what I can do to help you improve. Did you bring your sketchbooks, as well?"

"Yeah, they're right here," Lilly said, pulling a stack of sketchbooks out of her book bag. "And that reminds me, Oliver said that he told you about these drawing lessons a professor at Pepperdine was giving. I was wondering if you would write a recommendation for the scholarship he's offering. Otherwise I won't be able to get in because I don't have enough money to go."

"Of course," Mr. Freidovsky said, taking the sketchbooks and the papers Lilly offered him. "Have you thought about what you're going to submit? Mister Oaken stopped by yesterday after school. And Miss Stewart, I would greatly suggest that you apply for this scholarship, as well, or at least take the class. It would be very good for you, especially with your skills. I would like to see what skills you have with paint."

Miley looked down, embarrassed, and Lilly grinned at her supportively. "And this is the one that I painted last night," Lilly said, holding up the painting of the girl on the pier for Mr. Freidovsky to see. "This is the one that I've been itching to paint, but I could never get the image of the girl right in my mind. I finally got it last night and decided that I would paint it immediately before I lost it."

"Wow," he whispered, taking the canvas carefully. "Lilly… I'm speechless. Did you have a model for this or did you do it all from your mind?"

"It was all in my head," Lilly grinned, tapping the side of her head jokingly.

Miley looked at it, squinting her eyes curiously. "Who is it?"

Lilly shrugged. "I honestly don't know," she admitted. "It could be someone I've glimpsed before, or it could be entirely from my imagination. I just took hold of it and painted. You know that spot you told me about before school ended last year, Mr. Freidovsky? That's the pier there."

He shook his head and carefully set the canvas down on one of the tables. "Do you mind if I show this to my classes?" he asked. "Do you put your name in here somewhere along with the date? I would hate for someone else to claim this painting because you don't have your name on it."

"Yeah, it's there in the corner," Lilly said, pointing it out to him.

"That girl looks familiar," Miley whispered.

"Well, you two leave me in peace so I can look at these," Mr. Freidovsky said. "I'll see both of you in class, then."

Lilly and Miley left to see Oliver rushing towards them. "Did you guys see that black corvette in the parking lot?" he asked excitedly. "Do you know who's that is? I definitely have to talk cars with them. That car is amazing, I wonder if he'll let me drive it. When did you two get here?"

"About fifteen minutes ago," Lilly said as they headed towards their lockers.

"That's my car," Miley said, making Oliver fall over in surprise.

"Wait, are you sure we're talking about the same car?" he asked, standing up and hurrying after them because they hadn't stopped to wait for him. "The black 2009 Chevrolet ZR1?"

"Yup, that's mine," Miley said. "Oh, I almost forgot, Lilly, my dad said I could go with you into L.A. tomorrow, but I have somewhere to go tonight and I'll probably be out late, so I'll be half-dead in the morning. He said we could use my car to get there, but you're gonna have to drive."

"Wait, you're taking your car into the city with me not in it?" Oliver asked incredulously. "Lilly, have you seen that car?"

"Yeah, Miley drove me to school this morning," Lilly said, opening her locker. "Um, do you want me to go over to your house or… yeah, me going over to your house in the morning would probably be best, wouldn't it?"

"What's the interior like?" Oliver asked.

"It's custom-made," Miley said. "It's all black leather interior, has a GPS in it, I can hook my iPod up to it and listen to my music instead of the crap on the radio, and it goes very fast. That's all I know about it. If you want the details, talk to my dad or my brother. My dad knows a lot about cars and my brother is the one who picked it out for me for my sixteenth birthday last year."

"Whoa," Oliver whispered. "I wish _my_ parents would get me a corvette for my birthday. Is your dad, like, superrich or something?"

"Have I not made it clear that I don't want to continue with this conversation?" Miley asked. "Really, Oliver, please, I just… don't ask me about my car, my dad being rich, or anything that has to do with those two things again. I don't like sharing my private life with people I don't really know, thanks. And Lilly, it probably would be a good idea for you to come over to my house in the morning unless you want me to fall asleep at the wheel on the way over to your house."

"No, that would not be a good idea," Lilly said. "I plan to spend my weekend drawing and hanging out, not sitting in the hospital staring at your unconscious body."

"Thanks," Miley said sarcastically. "But you could always bring your sketchbook with you and do that portrait drawing while I'm passed out. Just don't draw any drool in or anything. That would be really embarrassing."

"Oh, I will," Lilly said jokingly. "That's what you get for ruining my weekend."

"Fine, if you don't want me to go, I won't," Miley said, turning to her locker and opening it.

"I want you to go!" Lilly exclaimed, thinking that Miley was serious.

"Ha, got you!" Miley yelled, turning and grinning at her. "Of course I'm coming. Why would I pass up the change to tour Los Angeles with someone who knows it well and isn't checking me out like the tour guide I had three years ago?"

Lilly blushed and turned back to her locker, laughing uneasily. "Yeah," she said. "Um, I'm gonna get my books here and head to homeroom. Oliver, are you coming or are you going to stop drooling over Brittany and actually go over there to say hi?"

"Um, I'll see you guys later," Oliver whispered, heading over to Brittany.

"He really likes her, doesn't he?" Miley asked as they both closed their lockers and walked to homeroom.

"Yeah, they're planning on getting married once they graduate," Lilly said. "They both want to go to Pepperdine for communications, so they have a lot in common. Rumor is that they've gone all the way, although I can't be sure because Oliver doesn't talk about Brittany that way when anyone is around. I'm just itching to get my hands on his diary and see what he's written in there."

"He has a diary?" Miley asked, surprised.

Lilly rolled her eyes and grinned. "He has a notebook with all his secrets written in it stashed away somewhere in his bedroom, along with a three-inch binder filled with notes on all the gossip that he's heard this year so far. There's a whole bookshelf dedicated to gossip from the past years, but he doesn't use them unless someone wants to know everything on someone. That doesn't happen too often, and when it does, it costs them a hundred and fifty dollars because it takes awhile."

"Who would be willing to waste a hundred and fifty dollars just to find out some information about someone?" Miley asked disgustedly.

"It's sort of like with celebrities," Lilly said, shrugging. "For example, I know that a lot of news stations have been looking for bad stuff that Hannah Montana's done. They're tired of seeing a goody two shoes teenage pop star and now they want the dirt on her, the stuff people will actually be interested in."

"They want another Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears," Miley whispered.

"Yeah," Lilly said, not noticing the depressed expression on Miley's face. "I guess you could put it that way. But they would pay a lot of money for it, and the same rules apply here. People get tired of seeing a goody two shoes, so they ask Oliver for some dirt, he gives them a price, and if they want it bad enough, they'll pay what he asks. For example, Saint Sarah went all the way with her boyfriend last year and then he broke up with her. He told everything about their relationship to Oliver and got a few hundred bucks for giving Oliver information. Ashley wanted to turn over Sarah's reputation as a saint, so she gave Oliver a few hundred dollars, and now Sarah is no longer a saint. It's sad if you ask me."

"Why would he do that to her?" Miley asked incredulously. "Did she ever do anything to him?"

Lilly shrugged. "It's just the way he is," she said. "He needs money for his car, and this is how he gets most of his money. Like I said yesterday, he works at a car repair shop, but he doesn't make much there. The only reason he's there is so he can learn how to fix his car up himself. He can't do some of the stuff, so he uses his discount when he needs stuff done like a new coat of paint or something. Actually, his car got a new paint job very recently."

"There are other ways to make money," Miley said. "I mean, he's basically ruining people's reputations."

"Yeah, but he has a plan for embarrassing them. I think he's doing it today," Lilly whispered, motioning for Miley to move closer. "You have to promise not to tell anyone about this. Not that they would really care, anyways. But what he's going to do is reveal this really big secret about Amber and Ashley, the school's popular girls who bully everyone. He hasn't told me what it is, but apparently it's good enough to knock them off their pedestal and lower them to everyone else's level."

"Is this a good idea?" Miley asked. "I mean…"

"You have no idea who they are," Lilly said. "They're… they don't like me very much, so whenever Oliver isn't around they… say stuff to me that… it isn't exactly the most flattering things that they come up with if you get my meaning."

"What do they say?" Miley asked.

Lilly looked away and became extremely interested in the sketchbook she had pulled out of her book bag. Oliver suddenly walked into the room with a grin on his face and sat down in front of Lilly. "What did you do?" she asked in a bored voice.

"You'll find out at lunch," he said, still grinning. "But this is good."

She rolled her eyes and stood up as the bell rang. Miley followed her to art class where Mr. Freidovsky was waiting for them with tables set up opposite of set up easels and chairs. Lilly grinned and pulled Miley to her favorite portrait seat, sitting her down at the table and taking a seat at the easel. "This is going to be fun," she said.

"Okay class," Mr. Freidovsky said once the bell had rung. "We are doing portraits today. Pick a partner. One will sit at the table and one will sit at the easel. Obviously, the person sitting at the easel will be the one painting the person sitting at the table. It's kind of common sense. Strike a pose, do whatever, and if you need help, just watch Miss Truscott there in the back corner."

Miley looked at her anxiously. "What do I do?" she whispered as people turned to look at the two of them. "I've never posed to get a portrait painted before."

"Um, I don't really like to do stiff, posing portraits," Lilly said, standing up. She grabbed Miley's sketchbook and a pack of pencils, handing them to her. "Just… draw, and try not to move much else but your arm, if possible. I'm gonna try to get this all in one go, okay? Stretch out now because you're gonna be really stiff after I'm finished."

"Hey, I thought this was supposed to be painting," a kid said from right behind Lilly as she picked up a pencil. She started and dropped the pencil, which broke in half when it hit the floor. Turning to face the boy, Lilly scowled at him.

"First of all, I'm just doing an outline of her figure before I start painting," she growled. "It's easier to erase pencil than wet paint. Second of all, it could be pencil, paint, pastel, or whatever you wanted. Mr. Freidovsky didn't say this had to be a painting. And third of all, don't say anything once I've started or I will kick you in the…"

"Okay, just don't say anything," Mr. Freidovsky interrupted. "I think he got the point, Miss Truscott."

Lilly smirked at the boy and turned back to her canvas, picking up another pencil and looking at Miley for a few second before she started to trace some lines on the canvas. After she got a general outline of Miley's body, she set the pencil down and unscrewed the caps on the paints, taking a palette from a nearby table and starting to apply paint to it. Ten minutes passed where she mixed her paints, testing them out on the inside of her forearm, before she turned back to the canvas with the clear intention to paint.

Time seemed to stop as Lilly glanced back between Miley, her canvas, and the palette she held in her hand. Soon, her painting started to take form, first with Miley's face, down her neck to her body, then to the table and sketchpad Miley was drawing in. She was so engrossed in her painting that she didn't notice people quietly walking away and starting their own portraits. Lilly kept painting right through the bell signaling the start of her second class and the bell signaling the start of her third class. She finally put her paintbrush down and set her palette down on a nearby table, sighing in relief as she sat back.

There was applause and she turned around, surprised to see Mr. Freidovsky and a class of people she didn't know standing behind her. "Wait… did the bell ring?" she asked, confused.

"Yes, but I cleared it with your teachers," Mr. Freidovsky said. "You weren't going to do anything in gym, anyways, and you were going to be working on research projects in history. The information for your history projects are on that desk over there. I didn't want to disturb you, and Miss Stewart looked quite content with drawing in her sketchpad."

"Wait, how did you get Mrs. Neizchtoff to agree to let us out of class?" Lilly asked incredulously. "She would never let us out of class without a pass from the principal."

"Well, I brought her over here and showed her what you were doing and she agreed to let you two out of class if you both have exceptional research projects," he said. "Now why don't you step back and let Miley look at the portrait. I'm sure she would be quite interested in how you painted her. I think you've found your muse, Miss Truscott."

Lilly was suddenly nervous as she stepped back and Miley carefully stepped around the back of the painting to view it from the front. Her mouth dropped open when she saw it and she turned to Lilly, a look of incredulity on her face. "This is amazing," she whispered. "How do you do it?"

"The same way you do it," Mr. Freidovsky said, picking up Miley's sketchbook and holding it up so everyone could see a detailed drawing of Lilly at her easel. Miley blushed and Lilly's mouth dropped open as she looked at the picture. It almost looked like Miley had taken a camera and just snapped a picture of her. "I think you might have found your muse, as well."

"I thought we were supposed to be doing portraits," she said meekly.

"Well you two can go compliment each other on your art skills over lunch," Mr. Freidovsky said as the bell rang. "Miss Truscott, I'll clean your supplies up. You sat there for a long time painting and it would do you some good to stretch out your limbs. Go ahead and eat lunch. I'll see you after school so we can talk about your canvases and drawings. You, as well, Miss Stewart. You are both excused."

Miley and Lilly gathered up their things and left the classroom.

"That was amazing," Miley said as soon as they were in the noisy hallway. "I don't get how you could paint something that good. Except for the one you did last night, except I almost didn't believe that you did that. You're amazing."

"Don't underestimate yourself," Lilly said. "You're really good, too. I mean… I don't think I could ever make one of my drawings look like that. It looked almost like it was a picture, and that's really good. You definitely have to apply for the scholarship for the drawing classes at Pepperdine."

"No, I'll just get my dad to pay for it for me," Miley said. "You should get the scholarship. You deserve it."

They entered the cafeteria where Oliver was standing in a large crowd of students. "Lilly! Miley! Over here! I'm going to tell the huge secret about Amber and Ashley and I don't want you to miss it!"

Sighing, Lilly grabbed Miley's hand, ignoring the thrill that ran through her body, and pushed her way towards Oliver, dragging the brunette behind her. "Okay, we're here, get the big announcement over with so I can go eat. I just spent three hours painting a portrait and Miley just sat through three hours posing for the portrait. We need nourishment."

"Whoa, keep your pants on, woman," Oliver said. "Okay everyone, quiet down!" Everyone immediately stopped talking and Oliver grinned, clearly pleased with the power he had over his fellow classmates. "I have an announcement to make about Amber and Ashley. At the end of the school year last year, I caught them talking behind the dumpsters. Me being me, I decided I would just conveniently listen in on their conversation and watch them. Amber professed to Ashley that she loved her and they kissed! Amber and Ashley are lesbians!"

"Oh my god, Oliver," Lilly yelled, tears stinging her eyes. "How could you do something like that to them, especially with me being me?"

Realization dawned on Oliver's face as he looked at her. "Lilly, I'm so sorry, I didn't think…"

"That's just the thing, Oliver, you never think!" Lilly yelled, and the whole cafeteria grew silent as they watched the two of them. "You go ahead and do what benefits you without thinking about how it might affect other people! I can't tell you how many times you've done this to me, and this is going too far. There is no way you can weasel your way out of this one. I hope you have a nice life."

She shouldered her way through the crowd, ignoring the fact that Oliver was calling after her. Running down the hallway, she burst out of the main entrance doors and ran behind the school, tears streaming down her face as she sat down behind the dumpsters and let everything out. Someone sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned on them, not even caring that it might be someone she hated who was trying to comfort her.

_**Okay, there you go. I decided to update a little earlier than I originally planned for a couple reasons. I've been getting a lot of good feedback on a lot of my one-shots and I really appreciate that, and I really do update more frequently if I get more reviews. And I got some really good reviews for my last chapter, as well. Thank you to Alchemist PAC, AlvinFan07, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, and Lovergirl242. By the way, thank you, Alchemist PAC, for translating that for me. I really appreciate it.**_

_**The other reason I've updated so quickly is because I forgot to put something in my last one-shot. I need more one-shot ideas. If anyone has any ideas or requests, just stick it in your review or PM me, because I am seriously out of ideas and I really love writing one-shots. Even if you have an idea for a multi-chapter story, tell me and I'll see what I can do. Thank you all again and I'll get up a one-shot as soon as I get an idea and I get the story written. The next chapter update will probably be next week. Thanks!!!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	4. Chapter Four: Lola

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!!!**_

Wiping her tears on her sleeve, Lilly looked up to see Miley sitting next to her, and understanding expression on her face. "Are you going to be okay?" she whispered, pulling a tissue out of her pocket and handing it to Lilly. "That was some pretty emotional stuff back there. Do you want me to drive you home?"

Lilly took the tissue and blew her nose, tossing it in the dumpster. "No, I'll be fine," she said, looking away. "I'm just… really emotional after I finish a painting or something. He just got me so mad. I can't even explain why. But he should have known that I get really emotional after finishing a big piece… he should have known better than to pop something on me like that."

"You're gay, aren't you?" Miley asked.

"Wait, what?" Lilly asked, looking up at her with surprise and fear in her voice. "Where did you hear something like that? What would give you a silly idea like that?"

"I understand if you don't trust me," Miley said. "You really shouldn't trust me since we've only known each other for a day or so now. But you need to trust _someone_. Oliver obviously isn't that person. I've known you for a very short time but I can already tell that you're an amazing girl and I would never want to do anything to hurt you. You were the first person to really accept me and show me around. I don't forget stuff like that."

Lilly shook her head, looking away. "I do trust you," she whispered. "I don't know why. But it's like… like we've met before and I somehow know you. I think… maybe you're the girl in my drawings and paintings that I've been doing all summer. You wouldn't believe how many sketches I've had of this girl… and how many times I've puzzled over who she is. You could be the one."

She smiled at Lilly, handing her another tissue. "I think I knew from the moment I saw you skateboarding past my house that we were meant to be friends," Miley said, wiping a tear off Lilly's cheek with the tip of her finger. "You're different than anyone I've ever met before. Things that matter to other people don't really matter to you. You don't seem to care about money or anything."

"It's not really something I care about," Lilly said, shrugging. "If I make a lot of money, then I make a lot of money. You don't need a lot of money to be happy in life. Not that I would know a lot about happiness."

"What do you mean?" Miley asked curiously.

The blonde sighed. "If you asked Oliver, he would say I haven't been the happiest person for the past few months," she said. "There's been a lot of stuff bugging me and I can't seem to ever get it off my mind. The only time when I don't think about it is when I'm painting or drawing. Or, more recently, when I'm with you."

They sat in silence for a few moments before Miley stood up. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to miss the rest of my classes," she said, reaching down to help Lilly stand up. "And we still have to go to Mr. Freidovsky's class after school to pick up your canvases and talk about those drawing classes over at Pepperdine. You do still want to go, don't you?"

"Thanks," Lilly said, taking Miley's hand and smiling as she stood up.

"Hey, no problem," Miley said. "Besides, we all feel like that at some point. I'm not sure that Amber and Ashley are feeling any better right now. I feel bad for them because no one wants to be friends with them now that Oliver told the whole school about their relationship."

"I should probably go talk to them when I get the chance," Lilly said. "After all, Oliver was the one who ruined their reputations and he was my best friend. They'll probably blame me."

"No, I don't think they will," Miley said thoughtfully. "You know, why don't we just go to class and we'll have the weekend to think this over. If you want, you can come over to my house and sleep over after we get back from our trip to the city tomorrow. My dad'll be happy because I have a real friend to hang out and I'll be happy because I have a real friend to hang out with."

Lilly looked at her curiously. "You didn't really have any good friends back in Tennessee, did you?" she asked.

Miley snorted. "That's an understatement. Come on, that was the first warning bell, I don't want to be late."

They made it to class just as the bell rang and as everyone was sitting down. No one paid them any attention as they talked about the latest gossip Oliver had revealed at lunch. Amber and Ashley were sitting in the back of the classroom, both of their eyes puffy and their faces streaming with tears. The teacher seemed to sense their distraught and refrained from calling on them the whole class.

At the end of the day, Lilly and Miley headed back over to Mr. Freidovsky's classroom to retrieve Lilly's sketchbooks and canvases.

"Girls, can I talk to you very quickly?" Mr. Freidovsky asked, and both of them nodded, sitting down in some chairs he pushed towards them. "I want you both to be able to go to these classes this professor at Pepperdine is offering. In just two years, you both will be heading off to college, and I think you would both make it into the finest art schools in the country, if not the world. I am willing to write out as many recommendations as I have to, beg as many people as I have to, and do anything and everything in my power to get you into one of those schools. But you both have to work towards it."

"Really?" Lilly asked excitedly, glancing over at Miley, who was looking at Mr. Freidovsky in surprise. "You would do that?"

"You both have talent that I haven't seen in all the years I've been teaching here, and I've gotten plenty of my students into some very good art schools," he said, sitting down across from them. "And your talent is still raw. If you can hone it down and perfect your skills, then you'll be set for a very long time."

"Oh my gosh, thank you so much, Mr. Freidovsky," Lilly squealed, springing up out of her seat. "You have no idea what this means to me. I've been dreaming about this for years and years. Thank you so much, you won't be disappointed, I promise."

Miley was quiet for a moment as Lilly rushed around the room, gathering up her canvases and sketchbooks. "Do you really think I'm that good?" she whispered, looking up at him uncertainly.

"If you really focus, I think you can make it as an artist," he said. "But then again, you might already be an artist. There's something about you that I can't quite put my finger on, if you get my meaning. You're a very promising girl, Miss Stewart, and I look forward to seeing where you're going to go with your life. I have a feeling that you're going to make it big."

The brunette shuffled her feet nervously. "Thanks," she whispered.

"Hey Miley, you can give me a ride home, right?" Lilly asked, walking up behind her with all her canvases. "Cause I don't have a ride home, otherwise."

"Yeah, and I have to get ready for tonight pretty soon," Miley said, standing up. "Thank you, Mr. Freidovsky, and I'll see you in class on Monday."

"Gosh, Miley, don't get too excited," Lilly said jokingly as they left the classroom. "Miley, this is the chance of a lifetime. Do you know how hard it is to get into the best art schools in the country? And Mr. Freidovsky is willing to help us get there! It's like… what are the chances of becoming a pop star? Like, one in a million!"

"Yeah, one in a million," Miley echoed.

"Come on, you can't seriously tell me that you aren't excited about this," Lilly said incredulously. "I mean, you're an amazing artist, and with just a little bit of instruction, you could be even better!"

"I need to show you something," Miley said, walking quickly out to her car and getting in. "You don't need to be home right away, do you?"

"No," Lilly said, confused. "What is this all about?"

"You'll see," Miley said, pulling out of the parking lot. "I'm taking you back to my house so I can show you something. If we're going to be friends… I'm going to have to be honest with you. You just have to promise that you won't ever tell anyone about anything I tell you today."

"Okay, what's with all the secrecy?" Lilly asked, rushing into Miley's house after the brunette. She stared around the large living room and the kitchen, running after Miley when she realized she was climbing up the stairs and walking down a hallway. Turning after her into a room, she realized she was in Miley's bedroom.

The walls were covered in posters of various music groups, most of which Lilly didn't recognize. Three guitars were leaning against the far wall next to a keyboard and a music stand. Miley's dresser was covered in makeup, sheets of music, and signed photographs of Hannah Montana. Her bed had stacks of identical Hannah Montana pictures, sharpies, and letters.

"Oh man, I forgot to clean all this up," Miley muttered to herself, moving a stack of letters from the middle of the room to her bed. "Sorry about the mess, I had to do some stuff this morning. Responding to letters and stuff."

"Why do you have so many Hannah Montana pictures?" Lilly asked, picking one up off Miley's dresser.

"I'm answering fan mail," Miley said.

"Fan mail?" Lilly asked. "Why do you have fan mail?"

"One minute, let me do something really quick," Miley said, going into her closet and shutting the door behind her. A few minutes later, someone came out wearing a hoodie, a pair of sparkly skinny jeans, and some black boots that reached up mid-calf. The girl pulled her hood back, revealing long, blonde hair. Long, blonde hair that was eerily similar to Hannah Montana's hair.

"Um, Miley!" Lilly yelled. "Did you know that Hannah Montana was in your closet? What's going on here? Is Lindsay Lohan or Jesse McCartney in there with you, too? Why don't you just send them all out at once?"

"Lilly, I'm Miley," Hannah Montana said, and Lilly stared at her. "Or really, I'm Hannah Montana, whichever you prefer." She pulled off her wig, revealing brown hair that had been put up in a messy knot.

"Are you just doing this to, like, pull one on me?" Lilly asked. "Get the gay girl before she gets you?"

"No, no, Lilly… don't say that," Miley said sadly, biting her lip nervously before she swiped some letters off her bed, clearing enough space for the two of them to sit down. She patted the empty space next to her and Lilly hesitantly sat down. "Look, I… I've never told anyone about this before. The only people who know are my dad, Jackson, and the people at the record company. Oh, and my lawyer. But… you're the only friend I've told. The only friend I've had."

Lilly was quiet. She stared down at her hands, twisting one inside the other as her eyebrows met in the middle of her forehead. "You… tonight… wait, you have a lawyer?"

Miley laughed. "Of course, I tell you that I'm Hannah Montana and you focus in on the bit about me having a lawyer," she said, smiling at Lilly. "Yes, I have a lawyer. What, do you need a lawyer?"

"Never mind," Lilly said quickly. "It's just… it's hard to believe that you're _the_ Hannah Montana. It explains why you're going out tonight. There's that big concert… oh my gosh, you're really Hannah Montana. The letters all over the place, tons of signed Hannah Montana pictures, why you sang along to all the songs in the car but the Hannah Montana ones, why you were so scared that Oliver would try to dig information up on you… you're really her."

"Yeah, it's me," Miley said, setting the Hannah Montana wig down on top of a pile of letters and setting her hands in her lap. "But… but you can't tell anyone, because if everyone knew, this whole life would be gone. I wouldn't be able to be just Miley Stewart, I would have paparazzi camping out in the street waiting for me to come out, people at school pretending to be my friends, and camera crews watching my every move. It wouldn't be me, anymore. It would be all Hannah."

"Of course I won't tell anyone," Lilly said, making Miley look at her in surprise. "I mean… if you trusted me enough to tell me this, then… I want to prove to you that you can trust me. And it's not every day that your best friend is an international pop star."

"Best friend?" Miley asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

Lilly nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah, you've proven that you're a better friend than Oliver," she whispered, looking down at the floor. "I mean… he wasn't exactly smooth with that announcement in the cafeteria, was he? He could have been a little more considerate."

"Um, yeah, about that, if you don't mind me asking, why… why were you so upset when he announced that Amber and Ashley were… well, are gay?" Miley asked curiously. "You've made it clear that you don't like them and you said that they don't like you, so they… they wouldn't really be a concern of yours, would they?"

"Now it's time for _me_ to be honest with _you_," Lilly sighed, keeping her gaze steadily on the floor between her feet. "You… you know when you asked me before if I was… gay? And how I masterfully evaded the question? Well, yeah, that's because… because I am. I didn't want to tell you before because I was afraid I would lose you as a friend before you even became my friend."

Miley laughed at her, making her look up curiously. "You don't need to worry about it," she said to Lilly. She stood up, walking over to her dresser and pulling a photo album from underneath her stacks of autographed Hannah Montana pictures, and sat back down next to Lilly, setting it between the two of them. "This is one of the reasons I left Tennessee and came here," she explained, opening the album.

Lilly watched as the brunette flipped through the album, past pictures of Hannah posing with celebrities like Jesse McCartney, Johnny Depp, and Kristen Stewart among others. Some of them were signed and others were clearly taken at after parties by people who were too drunk to hold a camera right side up. Miley finally stopped, pointing to a picture of her and a girl Lilly didn't recognize, both of whom were squished together between two guys. The guys looked a little too happy to be so close to them.

"That," Miley said, taking a deep breath, "was Hannah's girlfriend. Her name is Vanessa Lee. I ran into her at one of the after parties from one of my first concerts and we hit it off right away. We both agreed to keep our relationship quiet. When we broke up, she started to spread it all over the place that we dated. Luckily, it was contained so the label didn't have to go through a whole bunch of the crap the media would give them."

"So… is it just Hannah then?" Lilly asked, looking up at Miley, who was once again flipping through the photo album. "Or is it Miley, too?"

"What?" Miley asked, glancing up at Lilly.

"Are both sides of you gay?" Lilly asked bluntly, making Miley drop her hand and stare at Lilly in amazement.

"I… I suppose," she said after a few moments. "I've never really thought about it that way. But technically Hannah and I are the same person, so… yeah, yeah I'm gay on both sides. But, you know, this is kind of cool. I've met someone who likes girls the same way I do and she doesn't like me like that. I don't have to worry about making sure we don't break up so my secrets don't get spread all over the place."

There was a knock on the door. "Miles, are you almost ready for the concert? We should be leaving within fifteen minutes."

"Yeah, come on in, Dad," Miley said, and the door opened to reveal her father. He opened his mouth to speak, but then he caught sight of Lilly and Miley in her Hannah clothes and wig. Miley stood up. "Dad, I can explain…"

"I thought we agreed that you wouldn't tell anyone about this unless you asked me first?" he said angrily. "Do you know what this could do to you? How long have you known this girl? Two days? You have no idea if she's going to call the paparazzi or some stupid TV station to tell them they she knows where Hannah Montana lives! I thought that I made it clear that being Hannah all the time wasn't good for you…"

"She's different!" Miley interrupted.

"That's what you said about Vanessa!" he said, running his hand through his hair and looking up at the ceiling as he let out an exasperated sigh. "Miley, I…I don't even know what to do with you anymore. No matter what I do, no matter what I say, no matter what anybody does or says, you won't listen! Look, I'm going to trust you on this one, but if this turns out like last time, I'm not going to interfere and take care of the situation for you. You're on your own this time. And don't tell anyone else."

He left the room and Lilly stared after him with wide eyes. She turned to Miley to see tears streaming down her face, her makeup starting to run.

"Oh, no, it's okay," Lilly whispered, grabbing a tissue from the tissue box on top of Miley's dresser and dabbing at Miley's eyes. "Here, don't cry, it's all going to be fine. I promise I won't tell anyone."

"He hates me," Miley whimpered.

"No he doesn't," Lilly whispered, crumpling the tissue up in her hand and throwing it in the trash as she reached for another one. "He's your dad, of course he doesn't hate you. Maybe he doesn't approve of what you did, but that doesn't mean that he hates you." She dabbed at Miley's eyes again and tried to wipe away the smeared makeup with her thumb to no avail

"I've done so much to hurt him," Miley whispered, biting her lip as she tried to hold her sobs in.

"Look, Miley, it can't have been that bad," Lilly said.

"You don't know who I was…what I did…"

"From what I can tell, you're an amazing person, Miley, and you can't have meant to hurt him," Lilly said. "Now how about you calm down and we get your makeup fixed up so you don't disappoint the fans waiting for you right now. I know for a fact that there are a bunch of excited girls out there cheering for you. And I know that your dad loves you very much and wants you to have fun performing tonight."

"Can you come with me?" Miley asked quietly.

Lilly looked at her with a surprised expression on her face. "Are you sure that's smart?" she asked. "I mean, if someone from school sees me, won't they ask what I was doing with Hannah Montana?"

"That's why you'd wear a disguise," Miley said, her tears gone now that she had something to focus on. She headed towards her closet and opened the doors to reveal that the clothes had been parted in the middle to reveal an open door leading to a much bigger and more extensive closet. Lilly's eyes widened as she followed Miley into the closet that held every single outfit Hannah had ever worn on stage along with quite a few that had yet to be worn.

"This is amazing," Lilly whispered.

"Here, see if this fits," Miley said, handing Lilly a bright blue wig.

The blonde looked at the wig doubtfully. "How do I put it on?" she asked.

"Here, I'll help you, but we have to be quick," Miley said, stepping behind Lilly and taking her hair in her hands. Lilly felt a shiver run up her spine when Miley's fingers brushed against the back of her neck, but she didn't say anything, struggling to hold how she was feeling inside. Miley quickly put her hair up and took the wig from Lilly's hands, putting it on Lilly's head. "Turn and face me."

Turning, Lilly faced Miley and her eyes widened when she saw a makeup bag in her hands. "No makeup…" she started.

"The disguise won't work if you don't have makeup," Miley said.

"Fine," Lilly sighed, closing her eyes as Miley started to apply the makeup. A few minutes later, she heard Miley zip the bag up and braced herself for what she was about to see.

"Open your eyes," Miley said in a satisfied tone of voice.

Lilly tentatively opened her eyes and gasped when she saw her reflection in the hand mirror Miley was holding in front of her. She looked like a completely different person. "I…this is…how can…are you sure that this is me?"

"Do you like it?" Miley asked, biting her lip nervously.

"Yeah, I just…I never thought I could look…this pretty," Lilly said, blushing. "Um, yeah, am I just…just gonna wear these clothes or…?"

"Here're some clothes," Miley said, handing her a pile of clothes. Lilly took them, raising her eyebrows as she looked through them. She was holding red and black striped tights, a black mini skirt with a pink ruffle at the edge, a tight-fitting purple short-sleeved shirt with a high neck, a pink blouse-styled jacket, and black and white striped arm warmers.

"These don't match," Lilly said.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Miley said, throwing her hands up in the air. "That's the point. Now hurry up and change into that while I go fix my makeup. We had to leave about five minutes ago. When you're finished changing, I can get you some jewelry."

Miley walked out of the closet and Lilly stood there for a moment, just staring at the clothes in her hands. If she put these on and got into the limo with Miley, then she knew that her life would change forever. Not only would she be Lilly Truscott, skater chick, staying in the shadows all the time as she tried not to attract any attention to herself, and best friend to Oliver Oaken, she would be…someone that she's never dared to be before. The girl standing in the spotlight or as close to the spotlight as you could get without having some sort of talent. In a way, Lilly was holding her future in her hands.

"Do you want to come?" Miley asked softly, standing in the doorway leading from the closet into her bedroom. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"I'm coming," Lilly said decisively, setting the clothes on the floor and stripping off the skater shorts, hoodie, and t-shirt that she was wearing. She quickly got into the clothes, looking into the full-length mirror on the wall in astonishment. It was like she wasn't even Lilly anymore. She was…

"Your name is Lola Luftnagle, and if anyone asks, you're the daughter of oil baron Rudolph Luftnagle and the sister of the socialites Kiki and Bunny Luftnagle," Miley said, digging through a large jewelry box. "Do you have pierced ears?"

"Yeah, but I don't wear earrings very often," Lilly said, bringing her hands to her ears. "I think they're starting to close up."

"Well, you're going to have to open them back up because you're wearing earrings," Miley said, handing her a pair of large white hoop earrings. She pulled out a black choker and some bangles in assorted colors, making Lilly put them on. "Now repeat your name to me and everything else I just told you."

"My name is Lola Luftnagle and my father is Rudolph Luftnagle, an oil baron, and my sisters are the socialites Kiki and Bunny Luftnagle," Lilly repeated dutifully, wincing as she put the earrings in. "Who names their kid Bunny? And what do I say if someone asks me about my mom?"

"No one will care about your mom," Miley said, facing away from her. "If they ask, you can make something up. Just stick with the same story. We'll work on your signature in the limo, but for now, we have to go. Oh, shoes, here, put these on and hurry up. And wait to go outside and into the limo because we don't want anyone seeing us. That would be really bad and we would have to be explaining why Hannah Montana and her best friend were at our house."

Lilly put on the shoes that Miley threw at her and followed her out of the closet, through her room, and down the stairs into the living room. "Wait, best friend? How did Lola meet Hannah? Shouldn't we be getting this story straight?"

"We've been best friends since we were born," Miley said, creeping out of the door towards the limo and climbing in, motioning for Lola to follow her. "But we haven't been able to spend much time together since I started my career, and we don't like to go out in public because we don't want people watching our every move. Then your father started traveling a lot and your sisters love to party, so no one can watch you. My dad convinced your dad to let you stay with us until you graduate from high school. Oh, and you have a private tutor, so don't answer any questions about how people treat you at school or anything, because those are just trick questions."

"Okay, um, what about where I live?" Lilly asked as the limo door shut and Miley pulled a notebook and a pen out of a compartment under the seat in front of them.

"Say that you'd prefer if the paparazzi didn't stalk you," Miley said, thrusting the two items into Lilly's hands. "Now sign Lola's name."

Taking the notebook and pen, Lilly quickly signed Lola's name in a large, loopy cursive handwriting she used when she was forging her mom's signature. "Shoot, I forgot to call and leave a message for my mom," Lilly whispered, searching for her phone in her pocket, when she realized that she didn't have a pocket and her phone was in the Hannah closet back at Miley's house.

"Here, use mine," Miley said, handing a thin, silver phone to her. "That's my normal cell phone. Hannah's is with my dad because a whole bunch of her famous friends love to call her before concerts and wish her luck. They're all hoping that they'll be invited to the concert, which is not going to happen, considering…" She trailed off.

"Considering what?" Lilly asked softly.

Miley shook her head. "Nothing," she whispered as Lilly took the phone. "Call your mom and we can work on your back story the rest of the way to the concert. It should take us about an hour, so we'll be good by then."

Lilly dialed her mom's cell phone number and pressed it to her ear, waiting out the rings and starting to talk after the voicemail message. She had never expected to talk to her mom over the phone. That was a rare occurrence. "It's Lilly. I'm going to a late showing of a movie tonight with a friend from school out in the city, so I won't be back until late. I might just crash at Oliver's or hang out on the beach. Don't bother calling me back because I'll be in the movie and my phone is dead." She hung up and handed the phone back to Miley, who was looking at her weird.

"She didn't pick up?" she asked quietly, carefully.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting to talk to her," Lilly said with nonchalance. "She never answers her phone unless it's for work, and that's all the time. I'm surprised it didn't go straight to voicemail."

"Do you not get along well?" Miley asked.

"I don't get along with any of my family," Lilly said, making it apparent that she didn't want to talk about it anymore. Miley nodded understandingly and bit her lip, turning away from Lilly and facing the window, staring outside as the scenery rushed by.

"So, I'm guessing you know the city if you're Hannah Montana," Lilly said after a moment of silence. "Do you…do you still want to go into the city with me tomorrow?"

"Yeah, of course!" Miley said quickly. "I actually don't know the city well. It would be a disaster if Hannah walked around the city without at least five body guards surrounding her and I've never gotten the chance to get a tour of the city without the tour guide checking me out. Of course, I don't swing that way, so…"

Lilly grinned at her and rolled her eyes. "I know exactly what you mean," she said. "My freshman year of high school, there wasn't one guy in the school who didn't check me out. I finally…I made out with some chick and started dating her, and everyone got the picture. They don't really pay any attention to me anymore."

"I should have thought of that," Miley said thoughtfully, grinning at Lilly to let her know that she was just kidding. "Could you imagine the look on the tour guide's face if I just randomly grabbed one of the girls in the tour group and started making out with her?"

"Can you imagine the look on the _girl's_ face?" Lilly asked, laughing.

They managed to come up with a halfway credible back story for Lola before the limo started slowing down. Lilly looked out the window at the fans lining the streets, waving signs with Hannah's name and picture and screaming at the tops of the their lungs. "I never thought I would be on this side of the picture," she whispered.

"Well, get ready to become famous," Miley said with a smile. "And never, ever refer to me as Miley. It's always Hannah, okay?"

"Okay," Lilly said, nodding firmly. "One question more question before we go out there, though?"

Miley looked at her curiously.

The blue-wigged girl took a deep breath. "Why do you trust me so much when you barely even know me?"

The blonde-wigged girl furrowed her brow and then smiled at her. "The same reason why you trust me," she whispered in her ear.

Then the door opened and Hannah climbed out, Lola climbing out after her. They had arrived.

_**I plan on getting the next chapter up next week. Maybe later this week if I get enough reviews. Speaking of reviews, thank you to karleen3863, Satan's Camaro, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, Lovergirl242, and JustAnotherSlowGoodbye. REVIEW!!! Thank you all once again.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	5. Chapter Five: Fame

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!!!**_

Lola squinted as the cameras flashed in her eyes and shouts and screams bombarded her ears. She felt something tapping her hand and looked down to see Hannah handing her a pair of white sunglasses. Putting them on, she found that they helped protect against the flashes of the paparazzo's cameras. Questions were being hurled left and right, so she did her best not to look lost and just followed Hannah's lead.

"Hannah, who is your new friend?"

"How did you meet?"

"Why haven't we seen her before?"

"What is her name?"

"What happened to Vanessa?"

"Where is your posse?"

"Come on," Hannah muttered, grabbing Lola's hand and squeezing her way through the crowd of reporters to the entrance of the concert. When they were finally out of the range of the cameras' flashing lights, they both took off their sunglasses and propped them on top of their heads.

"That's crazy," Lola said.

"Welcome to my life," Hannah laughed. "Come on, it won't be too bad in my dressing room. You can help me pick out the rest of my outfits for the concert and I can tell you what's going to happen after it's finished. Unfortunately, my manager won't let me go to any after parties for a while, so you won't get to meet Jesse McCartney or Lindsay Lohan or anyone."

"I think that'd be a bit too much for one night," Lola said with wide eyes as she followed Hannah into an elevator, up to the tenth floor, and down the hall to a door marked 'Dressing Rooms.'

"Hey, Steve, what's up?" Hannah asked the guy standing there. "How's Susie? She doesn't still have strep throat, does she?"

The man smiled at her. "No, and she said thank you for the gifts you sent her," he said. "You really shouldn't have…"

"No, no, it's the least I can do when you have to work while she's sick," Hannah said apologetically. "I just wish that I could have done more. But we were short on staff and if you were available…I really am sorry. If there's anything else I can do, just let me know."

"Just stay out of trouble, Miss Montana," Steve said, swiping a card in the slot and opening the door for her. Lola stepped forward to go inside, but Steve stepped in front of her. "Hey, hey, hey, who's this?" he asked. "I didn't hear anything from your manager about a highlighter following you inside."

Lola didn't know whether to be complimented because her disguise worked, or insulted because she was being called a marker. So she decided to play sweet and innocent, pasting a big smile on her face and holding out her hand. "Hi, I'm Lola Luftnagle," she said brightly, and she could see the distrustful look disappear from Steve's face for a moment as he took her hand hesitantly and shook it.

"She's fine, Steve," Hannah said. "Lola's been my best friend since we were born. Her father travels a lot, so she's staying with us for a while. I thought that I'd bring her to one of my concerts and show her around."

"Do you hang out with Vanessa's crowd?" Steve asked, the distrustful look appearing on his face once again.

"I've never even met Vanessa before," Lola said truthfully. "I've heard about her from Hannah, but I've never met her, or even talked to her."

Steve looked at her for another moment. "I'm gonna let you in," he said. "Just because I like you. You're lucky that you don't seem like Vanessa, are you would be standing here arguing with me all night."

"Or just until I called my manager," Hannah said lightly, pulling Lola under Steve's arm and into the hallway beyond him. "Thanks, Steve, and say hello to your family for me!" The door closed and Hannah headed down the hall and stopped in front of a door with a big, gold star on in, 'Hannah Montana' written in big, bold black letters underneath it. Hannah slid a card in the key slot and the door clicked open.

"Welcome to my dressing room," she said, opening the door with a flourish.

Lola's mouth dropped open. Hannah's dressing room was huge. Expensive furniture was scattered all over the room, food was set out on tables, and a large plasma screen TV was mounted on the far wall. The only thing that was missing was windows so she could look down on the city.

"The reason that there aren't any windows is so paparazzi can't take pictures of me while I'm changing," Hannah explained, almost as if she was reading Lola's mind. "That's happened before to other celebrities, and I would really prefer if pictures of me half naked didn't show up on the front page of the local newspaper. That would be really embarrassing."

"Yeah, I can imagine," Lola laughed.

"Hey, relax a little," Hannah said, smiling at her comfortingly. "Sit down, watch some TV, get something to eat. Do whatever you want."

"Are you sure?" Lola asked hesitantly.

"I'm Hannah Montana, of course I'm sure."

Lola tilted her head, looking at Hannah curiously. This girl was different than the girl she had been talking to a few hours earlier at her house, or even just fifteen minutes earlier in the limo. She was more confident and in control. It was like Miley and Hannah were two different people. But they were _supposed_ to be two different people. Was that what she was supposed to do? Make Lilly and Lola two different people? Two completely different characters? If that was what she had to do, then she would do it.

"M'kay, thanks," she said easily, flashing her a grin and plopping down on the nearest couch and grabbing a doughnut from a platter on the table. "When do you go on?"

Hannah looked up at the digital clock above the door behind her. "Um, in about half an hour, and that reminds me that I have to go and make sure everything is set up for me. The makeup artist is going to want to touch me up and the wardrobe coordinator is going to want to go over my changes with me. Then I have to talk to my dancers…"

"Well, what are we doing here, then?" Lola asked, grabbing a plate and filling it with food. "You have to get going. And don't you think for a moment that I'm going to let you leave me behind here."

The blonde-wigged girl smiled at her, her blue eyes shining with happiness. "I wouldn't think of leaving you behind," she said, and for a moment, Lola, no _Lilly_, could see Miley shining through the disguise, but half a second later, it was gone. "Come on, I want to introduce you to my dad properly and then you can meet the dancers."

Fifteen minutes later, Hannah had finished going over the dance routines with her dancers, gotten her makeup touched up, and gone over all of her outfit changes with the wardrobe coordinator. Now Lola was standing next to her backstage and staring with wide eyes at the crowd of screaming fans that was waiting for Hannah Montana.

"How can you go out there and perform in front of that many people?" she whispered, turning slowly to Hannah.

"The same way you can paint," Hannah whispered in her ear.

"Hey, you ready?"

Both of the girls turned to see Miley's dad walking toward them, no disguise on besides an obviously fake mustache. Lola's eyes widened and she looked around franticly, but no one seemed to be paying close attention.

"Lola, this is my manager, Billy Ray Cyrus," Hannah said, and Lola's eyes widened as Miley's dad's eyes swept over her face, searching for something. Then he nodded, smiling slightly, before looking at Hannah.

"Full name?" he asked.

"Lola Luftnagle," Hannah replied easily.

"Relation?"

"Best friends since birth."

"Parents."

"Dad is an oil baron."

"Mother?"

"I don't like to talk about her much," Lola said, cutting in. "And I would really prefer if you didn't mention her while I'm right here, thank you very much."

"I like her," he said with a grin, sticking his hand out to Lola. "You can call me Billy Ray."

Lola took the proffered had and shook it once, firmly, before letting it go and continuing to eat the food from her plate. There was only one doughnut left and she was beginning to worry that she might have to run back to the dressing room to get some more food. She hadn't eaten lunch because of the whole incident with Oliver…

"You okay?" Hannah asked worriedly.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine," Lola said quickly. "Just…just thinking about the situation at lunch today."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Hannah whispered, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it too much. You can always talk to him on Monday."

"No, no, I'm fine, don't…don't worry about me," Lola said, shaking the hand off her shoulder. "Just…just focus on your show. You're going to do great out there. Have fun and dance and sing and wow your fans while I try to figure out how to get some more food. I never ate lunch today…"

"Get her more food," Hannah said to her dad, who nodded and immediately left.

"How do you manage to get him to do stuff for you like that?" Lola whispered.

"Hannah gets whatever she wants, no matter what," Hannah said, smiling slightly. "I try not to exercise my power too much, but it comes in useful in circumstances like this. I have to be on stage in about five minutes, so I should be getting in to place. Have fun, and try not to wander off."

She jogged off and Lola watched as she disappeared into a crowd of backstage workers. A few minutes later, the lights in the theater dimmed and, if it was possible, the fans started to scream even louder. Two spotlights flicked on, moving over the stage and crowd as the beginning notes to a song started to blare, and then everything went black.

When the stage lights came on, Hannah was standing at the front of the stage, a microphone held in her hand, and the fans went wild. Lola's eyes widened when Hannah's mouth opened and she started singing, not believing that she sounded even better live than she did on the radio.

"Here, do you want your food?"

She turned to see a man dressed in all black with a headset on handing her a heaping plate full of food. Taking it, she nodded gratefully before turning back to the stage and watching Hannah dance across it as she sang with a big smile on her face. She could tell that she really enjoyed singing.

Two hours later, the concert was over and the two girls were in Hannah's dressing room hanging out while they waited for all the reporters to leave. Miley pulled her wig off, throwing it on one of the tables, and collapsed on the couch. Lilly pulled her own wig off, sighing in relief as her hair fell out of its ponytail and onto her shoulders.

"I didn't think that a wig would be that sweaty," she said, setting it down next to Miley's wig and grabbing a bottle of water, twisting open the cap and downing the whole thing in one large gulp.

"Yeah, and it's even worse when it itches," Miley moaned. "But it's all worth it. I don't know what I would do if I had to be Hannah all the time or was famous myself. Could you pass me a bottle of water?"

Lilly grabbed a bottle of water and tossed it at her, watching as Miley drank the whole thing, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. There was a soft knock on the door and it opened to reveal Miley's dad without his mustache.

"Hey, the limo's ready to go," he said. "Go ahead and put your wigs back on just in case. We don't want a mistake like that ruining everything."

The girls donned their wigs and followed him out to the limo, ignoring the flashes of light as reporters clicked their cameras repeatedly, yelling out questions for them. They both relaxed when the door shut and the limo started to pull away from the theater. Miley leaned her head on Lilly's shoulder, closing her eyes as shiver ran up the blonde's spine.

_**There you go. I'll try to get the next chapter up by Sunday, maybe sooner if I get enough reviews, but I'm going to be really busy this week, so it would have to be **_**a lot**_** of reviews. Thanks for the reviews from: Freudian Slips Cause Problems, Sophi20, musicisinmysoul, Lovergirl242, AlvinFan07, physcob2002, spenceandash4ever, and lita rocks LbC. Thank you all so much. You are the people who keep me writing. Please REVIEW and thanks again!!!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	6. Chapter Six: Talking

_**Here's the next chapter . Enjoy.**_

"Do you want to stop and get coffee or just sleep on the way there?" Lilly asked as she got into the front seat of Miley's corvette. The brunette just got in the passenger's seat, closing her eyes for a moment as she sat down before closing the door and buckling her seatbelt.

"Could we stop by Starbucks or something?" Miley asked. "I'll pay."

"You don't have to…"

"I'm going to end up winning this argument, so just let me pay," Miley said, and Lilly nodded, putting the key in the ignition and backing out of the driveway. A few minutes later, she pulled into the drive-thru at Starbucks and ordered a small black coffee for Miley and a small hot chocolate for herself. She grudgingly took the money from Miley and paid, handing the change back to her.

"I hate when other people pay for me," she muttered, taking a sip from her hot chocolate and setting it in the cup holder as she pulled forward out of the drive-thru. "It makes me feel like I'm getting free handouts from them."

Miley sighed, taking a gulp from her coffee. "That's not the case here," she said. "I just felt like I had to pay since you're driving even though you were up really late last night with me. We could have left a little later, you know."

"Not if we wanted to beat the traffic," Lilly said. "Trust me, these roads get pretty crowded half an hour from now. And it takes forever to get down one street, let alone down ten. We're lucky because we just missed the early morning traffic and we beat the late morning traffic."

"So what're we going to do today?" Miley asked.

"Well, first, I'll treat you to breakfast at one of my favorite cafés," Lilly said, glancing over at Miley to try to see if she approved of what she had planned for the day. "Then I was going to give you a little tour of the area of the city I've been hanging around recently, introduce you to a few people, then we can set up our art supplies in the spot I've picked out for this month and get started. We're going to be right outside a little restaurant, so if I get too engrossed in my painting, then you can just go on in, order something, and come back out. I know the owner, so he'll let us stay there for as long as we want."

"Do you know what time we'll be getting back?" Miley asked. "I mean, it's a Saturday, so it doesn't really matter, but my dad is going to want an approximate time just in case something happens. It can be really annoying sometimes…"

"No, it's fine," Lilly said quickly, flashing her a smile. "We'll probably be back around eight or nine tonight, so not too late. I was thinking since I crashed at your house last night, you could come over to my place tonight. My mom isn't going to care since she sleeps like a rock and never checks in on me. She's going on a business trip tomorrow for two weeks. I wanted to go to New York City with her, but I can't miss school."

"Are you staying by yourself?" Miley asked worriedly. "Are you going to be okay?"

Lilly shrugged. "It doesn't really matter, she leaves me alone all the time," she said, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice. "As long as she remembers to leave money for me this time, I'll be fine. Last time, I had to look through the whole house for her credit card and take money out of the bank. It took me three hours to find her card and I was lucky that I know her code or else I would have been living on pop tarts and whatever I could get off Oliver for a week."

"That's horrible!" Miley exclaimed.

"It's my mom," Lilly said nonchalantly. "I can't change her, so I just live with her. Or I live with her when she's in town."

"I don't think I could ever live with my dad going out of town all the time and not leaving money for me or calling me every day," Miley said, shaking her head. "I can't even imagine living like that, let alone thinking that it's no big deal."

Lilly was quiet for a moment and there was an uncomfortable silence.

"Sorry," Miley whispered, biting her lip nervously. "I…I didn't mean to offend you or anything. It's just…it's hard for me to imagine."

"Yeah, it's fine," Lilly said quietly.

There was another awkward silence.

"Hey, so what's Tennessee like?" Lilly asked brightly.

Miley looked surprised. "Um, well, where I lived, the houses were a lot farther apart," she said jokingly. "There was a lot more open space. We owned a couple hundred acres of land and I would ride my horse, Blue Jeans, out there every chance I got."

"Wait, you had a horse?" Lilly asked.

"Technically, I still do, but my grandma is taking care of him right now," Miley said, and Lilly could see that she was happy when she was talking about Tennessee. She wanted to keep the brunette happy like this. "He's a beautiful horse though, and he loved it when I brushed him. I spent hours in that barn just brushing him. He's a white horse with gray splotches all over him. He sort of looks worn, like an old pair of blue jeans."

"He sounds amazing," Lilly said, smiling at her. "What else about Tennessee?"

"Well, there's tons of space like I said before," Miley started slowly. "And the sun just beats down on you while you're working and you go in at dinner time just soaked in sweat, but it's satisfying, in a way. The smell is so much different, too. Here, all you can smell is exhaust fumes and stuff like that, but in Tennessee, there's the grass and the rain and animals and…it's just amazing.

"But we also have an apartment in Nashville, which is where Hannah stayed when she was still in Tennessee," Miley said, her tone of voice becoming noticeably more depressed. "It's…it's okay, I guess. I mean, it's no LA or New York City, but it has some shopping opportunities and stuff, if that's what you're into."

"No offense, but not really," Lilly said, smiling hesitantly at Miley. "I usually go on four major shopping trips a year, one for every season. I get what I think I'll need, and if I end up needing any other clothes, I take a quick trip without any other girls to make sure that it doesn't take any longer than it needs to be." _Not that I have any girl friends to go shopping with_, she thought to herself.

"Shopping is fun to an extent," Miley said. "I don't think I could go shopping for a whole day, but I don't mind going for a couple hours every once in a while. And if I'm walking around a city, I don't mind window shopping. I think just looking around stores is really fun, actually."

"I guess it isn't _too_ bad," Lilly said.

"What do you do for fun, then?" Miley asked.

"I skateboard," Lilly said automatically. "Oliver and I go to this skate park by our neighborhood all the time and I have tons of friends there and I even work there. And I surf when the weather is good."

"You surf?" Miley asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it isn't that much different from skateboarding, or at least not in my opinion," Lilly said. "You can't do tricks like on a skateboard, but it's just as much fun."

"Well, I can't skateboard or surf, so I wouldn't know," Miley said.

"Then I'm just going to have to teach you how," Lilly said.

"No, no, I'll fall off and kill myself!" Miley exclaimed, and Lilly turned to her, surprised. The car swerved into the other lane and Lilly quickly faced forward, straightening the car as the cacophony of squealing tires and honking horns reached her ears. When she glanced over at Miley, she saw that the brunette's face was pale.

"Sorry," Lilly whispered. "Just…just don't say that."

"Say what?" Miley asked curiously. Her hands were clenched tightly in her lap, a startling white against the dark blue of her jeans. That almost-crash must have really affected her.

"That you'll kill yourself," Lilly murmured. There was the summer…no, she wasn't thinking about that. "It's just…not funny. Please, I don't think I could stand it if…if you…"

Her eyes started to tear up and she struggled to hold them back, keep the sobs from creeping up her throat, escaping her mouth, letting Miley know that something was wrong. She reached out towards the radio and turned the dial. Music blared to fill the awkward silence and the sound of Rush blared from the radio. She saw an arm reach out and the volume of the music is lowered so she could barely hear it.

"Lilly, pull over." Miley voice was gentle and soft, but commanding.

But Lilly kept on driving. Her vision started to blur as tears started to run down her cheeks. Her hands started to shake and her foot lifted off the gas pedal a little. The car started to slow and she sucked in a shaky breath.

"Lillian Truscott, pull this car into that rest stop right now," Miley commanded, and Lilly automatically flicked on the blinker to signal that she was turning into the exit towards the rest stop. She heard Miley sigh with relief as she pulled into a parking space.

There was an awkward silence before Miley finally turned to her. "Lilly, I…I'm sorry," she whispered.

A sob escaped Lilly's mouth and then everything started to tumble out. She started gasping for breath as tears ran down her face, squeezing her eyes shut and pulling her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around herself as she tried to keep herself from drifting away, falling apart.

Then arms wrapped around her, pulling her in, keeping her together. Her breathing almost immediately eased up and she felt herself calm down. Sniffling, she raised her head to see that Miley had unbuckled her seatbelt and was now leaning across her seat to hug her.

"Hey, it's going to be okay," Miley whispered, pulling her closer as she started to cry again, her right hand running through blonde hair and the other rubbing comforting circles on her back. She finally calmed down again and pulled away from Miley, wiping her tears away on the sleeve of her shirt as she looked away. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," Lilly muttered. She knew that Miley would be hurt by her blunt statement, but there were so many things that Miley wasn't telling her that she couldn't insist that she tell her. And Lilly just couldn't…she couldn't even think about it.

"Okay," Miley said evenly. "How about I drive? You can get a sketchbook out or something and draw."

"No, I promised I would drive," Lilly said.

"You stayed up just as late as me last night," Miley pointed out. "You're just as tired as I am."

"I'm used to it."

"How can you be used to it?" Miley asked.

"I'm an insomniac," Lilly said.

"You slept last night."

"For about two hours at ten minute intervals," Lilly said.

"Why don't you sleep?"

Lilly looked away, her jaw clenching and a muscle in her cheek tightening so it stood out. "I don't like to talk about it," she whispered.

Miley was quiet for a moment. "I…I'm sorry," she murmured.

The blonde just put the car into reverse, backed out of the parking space, and pulled out of the rest stop. The rest of the ride to Los Angeles was quiet, only broken by the sound of soft music coming out of the radio. Lilly had turned it on after five minutes of driving in the uncomfortable silence.

Traffic got busier as they entered the city. Lilly pulled into a parking lot behind a line of small stores and parked in a space reserved for employees. Pulling a card out of her pocket, she threw it on the dashboard and got out of the car, grabbing her things from the backseat and trying to manage it by herself.

"Do you need help?"

Miley reached passed her, picking up the easel in the back seat and holding it. Lilly smiled at her gratefully before getting her canvases situated and closing the door. "Look, I'm sorry for what happened on the road and at the rest stop, but…but I…I just can't talk about it," Lilly said quickly. "I'm not ready, okay? I've never talked about it with anyone and the only reason people know parts of it is because they saw it. But they don't know all of it. No one knows all of it. Not…not even Oliver."

"I…I think I…it's okay," she whispered, finally deciding on an answer. "How about we forget this all? Just for now, so we can enjoy this, and…and maybe talk about this later?"

"That sounds good," Lilly sighed, relieved. "Thank you."

She smiled at Miley and led her to a door at the back of the building, punching a code into the keypad there and pulling it open after a loud clicked signaled it unlocking. Reaching to her left, she flipped a switch and a light flickered on to reveal a storage room full of cooking utensils, pots and pans, and food supplies.

"What is this place?" Miley whispered. "Are we supposed to be in here?"

"Supposed to? No. Allowed? Yes. Don't worry, we won't get in trouble," Lilly said reassuringly, reaching for the handle of the door in front of her and opening it. She led Miley out of the storage room and into a kitchen, closing the door behind her.

"Hey, Lilly, long time, no see!" a man in an apron and baseball cap said as he kneaded a ball of dough. "And who's this young lady accompanying you?"

"Hey, Dave," Lilly said easily, a smile sliding onto her face automatically. "This is Miley Stewart. She just moved to Malibu a couple weeks ago and hasn't had the chance to tour the city with someone who knows the sights. Miley, this is Dave. He owns this restaurant, which, by the way, is really successful. I'm surprised he hasn't moved out of this space yet."

"It's all about location, location, location," Dave said with a knowing smile. "It doesn't really matter if the food's good, as long as you're the only restaurant on the block."

"He's joking," Lilly murmured to Miley. "He makes the best food in the area. If he wanted, he could probably get a job at one of those fancy restaurants that won't sell you a meal under forty bucks."

"Don't lie to the poor girl," Dave chided. "I'm good, but I'm not that good. Do you want to leave your stuff here while you show Miley around? Did Oliver drive you guys?"

"No, we took Miley's black corvette," Lilly said. "The card is on the dashboard, so we shouldn't get towed, but just in case, if the police come, don't let them tow it cause it's gonna be a pain in the butt to get back." She stored her things in the back of the kitchen where she usually put them when she walked around the city and turned back to face Miley and Dave.

"No problem," Dave said, nodding.

"Hey, um, do you mind if I use the bathroom before we head out?" Miley asked quietly.

"Yeah, sure, just head straight through that door there and it's the last door on the left," Dave said, pointing to a door. Miley pushed through the door, smiling gratefully, and both Dave and Lilly watched her as she disappeared.

"God, Lilly, a corvette?" he murmured.

"It's not what you think," Lilly said quickly.

"Sure."

"She's just a friend," Lilly said angrily. "That's it, okay? Nothing more. And that's not going to happen ever again. Now I don't want to talk about it, so don't bring it up and put me in a bad mood because I don't want to be in a bad mood today. I've already ruined it enough as it is."

"What happened?" Dave asked, concerned. He abandoned the dough as he turned to face her.

"Nothing," Lilly muttered.

"Oliver stopped by about an hour ago with his girlfriend," Dave said. "He's worried about you. Did…did something happen over the summer? He said that he didn't see you much, and when he did, you were really pale and weren't looking too hot. You know you can trust us, right?"

"I can't trust Oliver and nothing happened," Lilly snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Wait, what happened between you and Oliver?"

"Ask him when he comes back to ask you about me," Lilly said sullenly. "See, now you've put me in a bad mood."

The door opened and Lilly immediately uncrossed her arms and stood up straighter as Miley walked in. She smiled at the brunette who smiled back. "Are you ready to go?" she asked.

"Bad mood, my ass," Dave muttered, turning back to kneading.

"Shut up," Lilly said to Dave.

"I'm ready," Miley said, her eyes flickering between Lilly and Dave, a questioning look on her face.

"Okay, come on, we can go out for breakfast first, then I'll show you around, introduce you to some people, show you some of my favorite places, then head back here and hang out in front of the restaurant to paint," Lilly said. "We can take a break, grab lunch somewhere, come back and paint some more, then have dinner here."

"Sounds like a plan," Miley said.

Lilly linked arms with Miley and they walked out of the kitchen, Lilly struggling not to squirm in discomfort when she felt Dave's eyes penetrating the back of her head.

_**Thank you to everyone who reviewed: Freudian Slips Cause Problems, JustAnotherSlowGoodbye, Sophi20, Faith Karma (7), AllyK00, and Alvin Fan07. You guys are awesome. Really. Wow, I'm starting to come to the end of what I've already written. I'm gradually adding onto it, but I'm going to have to write a couple chapters out, now. Thank you all once again and REVIEW!!!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	7. Chapter Seven: Lies

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!!!**_

"We aren't going to any of the really big tourist spots because they'll be crowded and hot and everyone will be sweaty and screaming and it won't be fun," Lilly said as they headed down the street, arms linked. Her body tingled from the feel of Miley's skin touching hers, but she ignored the feeling. "So I'm going to show you the sights that are the best in the city but no one knows about them. Or, no one can get to them because they don't know how."

Miley looked at her curiously.

"What?" Lilly asked.

"I'm wondering what goes on in that brain of yours," Miley said honestly.

"Why would you wonder that?" Lilly laughed.

"Because…because sometimes, I feel like…like I can see right into you, into your eyes, but I can't…interpret what I'm seeing," Miley said slowly, turning her head away from Lilly, facing forward. "And other times, it's like you have storm shutters slammed shut and you don't want to let anyone in. You're like a puzzle. And I love puzzles. You're just a lot more difficult to solve than most people."

Panic passed through Lilly's mind. She carefully kept her face blank when Miley glanced at her out of the corner of her eye and leaned up, whispering in the brunette's ear. "And this is the secret pop star talking."

The brunette stumbled, surprise crossing her face as she looked at Lilly, who was grinning at her triumphantly. Miley then gave her a small smile. "You got me," she said quietly. "But I want to figure you out, still."

"Please don't," Lilly begged, stopping them in the middle of the sidewalk. Several people grumbled and swore as they held up the foot traffic, but Lilly didn't care. She pulled away from Miley. "Don't do this. You don't understand."

"Understand what?" Miley demanded.

Lilly grabbed her hand, pulling her through the crowd of people to an alley, through a gate in a chain fence, and to a small paradise in the middle of the city. Tall grass waved in a slight breeze, the surface of a small pond rippling. A tree leaned over the water, an occasional leaf floating down and landing on the shiny surface. The blonde turned to face Miley, who was staring at the sight before her in amazement.

"What is this place?" she whispered.

"This…this is _my_ place," Lilly whispered, letting go of Miley's hand and walking forward as she crossed her arms over her chest. Tears began to fall down her cheeks. "This is the place where everything important in my life has happened. I…I've loved here and I've lost here. All my heartbreaks and difficulties…this is where I feel the most like myself, besides when I'm painting."

"Why are you showing me this place?" Miley whispered.

The blonde turned around to face Miley. "Why do you trust me so much?"

Miley looked hesitant. "Because…because I like you," she whispered.

"You like me?" Lilly asked hesitantly.

"Yes, I…since that first moment I set eyes on you, I couldn't get you out of my head," Miley whispered. "It was my goal to get to know you, because I thought that maybe if I became your friend, these feelings would go away. I don't need to get into a relationship right now. I've already messed up a lot in my life, but I can't help but want to be with you, Lilly. And I can't help but hope that you feel the same way with me."

"No," Lilly whispered, shaking her head. "You can't like me like that."

"Why?" Miley asks desperately. "I see the way you look at me, Lilly, when you think I'm not looking. I know you feel the same way. Please tell me you feel the same way."

"I'm sorry," Lilly said quietly as Miley stepped towards her. Suddenly she was being pressed up against the tree and the brunette's mouth was moving against her. A fire burst into flame in her stomach and she squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to ignore the feelings striving to be set free. Putting her hands on Miley's shoulders, she pushed her away and shook her head. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be," she whispered to Miley.

"But I love you," Miley whimpered.

Lilly's eyes widened. "No, you can't love me," she whispered. "Don't love me. Don't love me ever."

"Why?" Miley moaned.

The blonde hesitated. "Because I hate you."

Miley pulled herself up straight. "Well, then, if that's the case," she whispered. "I completely understand." She turned on her heel and left.

Yes, all the important things happened in this place. In Lilly's place. And they happened because of her lies.

_**Sorry it's so short, but I promise the next chapter is longer. **_**A lot**_** longer. Thank you to everyone who reviewed: ScorpioP, physcob2002, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, Sophi20, AllyK00, AlvinFan07, and Meg J. You guys are awesome. Please REVIEW!!! I'll get the next chapter up next Sunday, possibly Monday or Tuesday because I'm going to be out of town. Thank you all so much!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	8. Chapter Eight: Telling

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!!!**_

Lilly angrily splattered paint on her canvas, her brushstrokes swift and short. Instead of gently dipping her brush in the paint, she jabbed it in and went back to the canvas, not caring that she was in the middle of class, that everyone was watching her with wide, fearful eyes, that Miley was sitting right next to her and ignoring her. Tears began to fall down her face and she continued to paint.

She couldn't get Miley out of her head. The broken look that flashed across her face when Lilly had said that she hated her. Then the nonchalant look that had replaced it. Almost a look of confusion and understanding mixed together. Another stroke on the canvas, another lie. A sob escaped her mouth and her grip on her brush tightened. Her movements were stiff.

Suddenly the brush dropped from her hand and she stared at the masterpiece she had just created. She's barely aware of the people gathered around behind her, watching her as she reacts to what she just painted. The painting is of a dark, dead world. Carcasses of trees litter the black earth, shriveled plants lay on the ground, and bones are spread across the terrain. There is no sun, no stars, no moon. Just darkness.

Then Lilly fell to her knees and sobs were shaking her body. She couldn't hold everything back anymore. Art made her so…raw and emotional. It wasn't good for her to paint in class. People could see her…

A gentle hand fell on her shoulder and she was being pulled to her feet and led into an empty room. Someone gentle pushed her down into a chair and said something, but she couldn't understand who it was or what the person was saying. Then the person left the room and the door closed. Lilly was left alone. She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around her legs, buried her face in her knees, and just sobbed.

It had been two weeks since the incident with Miley in Los Angeles. Miley had run off, and when Lilly walked back to the restaurant, she found that the brunette's car was gone. Dave said that she had come running through the kitchen and he had seen her speeding out of the city in the car. He went on a long rant about how Lilly always chose the wrong girls, but stopped when he saw the blank look in the blonde's eyes. She had stayed until he closed up the restaurant and he had driven her home, telling her to call him if she needed anything. Telling another lie, she promised and walked into her house.

She spent all of her free time confined to her room, avoiding Miley and Oliver. Her art got darker and darker and she could tell Mr. Freidovsky was getting worried because of all the dark pieces she was bringing in, but he didn't say anything. He helped her choose a piece to submit to the scholarship program for the art class and she filled out the application, trusting him to send it in the mail. She had been surprised that she actually trusted anyone anymore. After everything that happened.

Half an hour after her breakdown in art class, Lilly was carefully composed and didn't react when the door opened and Mr. Freidovsky walked in. He was holding a manila folder in his hand and had several of her canvases with him. Setting the canvases on the table between the two of them, he closed the door and opened the manila folder, pulling out a thin white envelope and handing it to her.

"I didn't open it because it was addressed to you," he said, and Lilly took it eagerly, realizing that it was for the scholarship competition for the art class.

_Miss Lillian Truscott:_

_We are pleased to inform you that your artwork has earned you the chance to attend the annual Pepperdine High School Art Workshop. You have a skill that could take you very far in life and I am looking forward to working with you in a few weeks. There are only four other students who have been chosen this year to participate in the workshop. Successful completion of the workshop will earn you a letter of recommendation from me._

_The workshop starts Tuesday, September 21, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. It will take place at Seaver College in the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art. Please meet in the lobby of the museum and I will meet you there to direct you to the room we will be using during the workshop._

_Once again, I look forward to meeting you and seeing more of what you can do._

_Sincerely, Professor Ronald J. Bilks_

Lilly looked up from the letter with wide eyes, a grin starting to spread over her face. "Oh my God," she whispered, looking back down so she could read the letter over once more, just to make sure. "I…I won the scholarship."

"Congratulations!" Mr. Freidovsky said enthusiastically. "You deserved it! Although I do wish Miss Stewart had applied for the scholarship."

The blonde's face darkened considerably at Mr. Freidovsky's mention of Miley. She set the letter down on the table and closed her eyes, her right hand opening and closing of its own accord. She needed her sketchbook and a pencil. Or a paintbrush and a canvas. _Something_ where she could use her hands and get her feelings out.

"Lilly," Mr. Freidovsky said gently, and she opened her eyes. "I don't know what's going on between you and Miss Stewart, and frankly, I don't want to know because it isn't my business. But I'm worried about you. I've checked with your other teachers and your grades aren't falling, but your artwork…"

"Has it been getting worse?" Lilly snapped.

"No, but it worries me," Mr. Freidovsky sighed, leaning back in his chair. "I don't like to see you like this, Lilly. It isn't healthy. Yes, it's better than holding it all inside, but…but it would help to talk to someone. Do you have anyone you can talk to? A good friend? Your parents? A relative?"

"I don't want to talk about anything with anyone," Lilly mumbled. "I don't _have_ anyone."

"Lilly…"

"No!" Lilly yelled, standing up and knocking her chair back on the floor. Mr. Freidovsky looked at her with wide eyes. "No one…no one would understand, okay? I have to do this myself! It's just me! Just me and my art!"

"Please, Lilly, calm down," Mr. Freidovsky said, standing up slowly. He reached out an arm, walking quickly around the table. Lilly collapsed into him, sobbing. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back comfortingly. "It's going to be okay," he whispered. "You're okay."

When Lilly finally calmed down, Mr. Freidovsky righted her chair and sat her in it. "I have to go teach another class," he said gently. "I've already sent someone to the office with a note from me to notify your teachers that you won't be attending class today. Go into the storage room and take whatever you need. Do what you need to do. I'll come back during lunch and we can talk if you want, okay?"

She nodded, swallowing with difficulty. "Okay," she whispered.

He looked at her carefully before standing up and leaving the room, closing the door gently behind him. Looking around, Lilly realized that she was in his office. She stood up and went to the door, staring through the window into the classroom. It was second period, which meant that she knew no one in that room. But most of them probably knew her as the lesbian who…no, she wasn't thinking about that now. Wiping her eyes on the back of her sleeve, she quietly opened the door and ventured into the room towards the supply closet.

Looking through the supplies, her eyes lit up when she found a large canvas, larger than anything she had ever painted before. She took it and managed to get it out of the closet, going back in to get an easel large enough for it. Setting up the easel at the back of the classroom, she went up to the front of the room where the paints were set out and collected the colors she wanted. Mr. Freidovsky caught her eye and smiled at her encouragingly before she looked away and scurried to the back of the classroom.

For the first time in a long time, Lilly didn't know what to paint. Usually she had an idea of what she was going to do before she started and then she just let it take her away. But now, she had nothing. So she dipped her brush in the purple paint and tentatively reached out to touch it against the canvas.

Then her hand was moving of its own accord, cleaning her brush, dipping the brush into another color, painting a streak of red across the canvas. It was like Lilly had stepped outside her body and she was watching herself paint. Her eyes widened in wonder as a picture appeared before her. It was the girl. Except, this time, she was with two other girls. A blonde stood in the middle of the canvas. On one side of the canvas was the mystery girl she had been painting for so long and on the other side of the canvas was a girl with long, black hair, deep, piercing, dark eyes, and a face that was angelic and cunning at the same time.

The background was the most confusing part of the whole painting. At some parts there were spots of darkness, clocks, questions marks, and indiscernible faces, but at other parts, there were spots of light, flowers, suns, and stars. Colors wove in and out of each other, complementing and conflicting with each other at the same time. The whole painting clearly spelled out confusion.

"I like it."

Lilly turned around to see a girl, a freshman, looking at her painting with a small smile on her face. She smiled weakly at the girl, who stood up from her stool and walked up next to her.

"She looks like you," the girl said, gesturing to the blonde in the middle of the painting. "You're really good."

"Thank you," Lilly said quietly.

"I'm Paige," the girl said, and she held out her hand. Lilly tentatively shook it, dropping her hand quickly to her side. The bell rang and Paige smiled at Lilly before cleaning her easel up, slinging her bag over her shoulder, and walking out of the room.

"Who is that girl?" Lilly asked as Mr. Freidovsky walked up beside her.

"She's an artistic genius," Mr. Freidovsky said. "She reminds me of you in your freshman year. Happy, eager, ambitious, always wanting to do the best she can do and asking how to do better. She's actually enrolled in that workshop at Pepperdine. Three of the five students who were accepted are from this school. And I teach all three of them."

"Who's the third student?" Lilly asked, already knowing who it was.

"Miley Stewart," Mr. Freidovsky said, glancing down at her quickly.

Lilly sighed, sitting down on a nearby stool. "It's hard," she whispered after a moment. "I…I don't talk to people about what happened, or about how I feel. I have my art for that. And before I had my art…I had someone to talk to. It's weird. It feels like I'm taking a step back. Like…expressing everything in my artwork was a step in the right direction. A step forward. Everyone else was childlike and stupid for having to talk to people and I was superior because I had found a way to not depend on anyone. But now…now _I_ feel childlike and stupid."

"How about we go get our lunches and we can talk about this then?" Mr. Freidovsky said with an understanding smile. "I have the whole block free, since it's my planning period, and I didn't plan on doing anything today."

"Thanks," Lilly said quietly, standing up. They went to the cafeteria, bought their lunches, and headed back to Mr. Freidovsky's classroom. He pulled a stool up to his desk and motioned for Lilly to sit down as he sat down in the chair behind the desk. Lilly picked at the pasta on her plate while Mr. Freidovsky ate.

"So, do you want to just paint or do you want to talk?" he asked when he was finished.

"I think…I think I want to talk," Lilly whispered. "But I don't know where to begin."

"How about you begin with the painting," he said, pointing at Lilly's large canvas in the back of the classroom. She nodded and got up, following him to it and watching as he examined it closely. He turned to her and looked at her expectantly.

"Well…um, I didn't exactly know what to paint, so I just got a bunch of colors and stared at the canvas for a while," Lilly said nervously, staring at the painting. Her eyes kept drifting to the girl with the black hair on the left. "And…it sort of just came out, you know? I didn't plan it or anything. It's like…my life is coming out in my art."

"That's how some artists get their masterpieces," he said quietly, encouragingly.

"Well, you…you remember Leann, right?" Lilly asked quietly, and Mr. Freidovsky nodded. "Well, she was my girlfriend for two years, until this summer. She broke up with me." She was leaving a lot of stuff out, but it was more than she had ever told anyone. "And then I met Miley. And I genuinely like her. But after what happened with Leann…I feel like Leann has an effect on who I like and date even though she isn't even here."

She turned away from the painting. "I don't know what to do anymore," she whispered. "I try not to get close to people, but I do get close to them and I hurt both them and myself."

"That's what life is about," Mr. Freidovsky said, surprising Lilly. "And it's an artist's job to interpret it so other people can understanding it through their art. You're a special girl, Lilly, and I have a feeling that a lot more happened than what you're telling me. But the human being is a very social person. It's hard for someone to survive without having someone close to them. Maybe there's no one that you've met who's the right person to trust, but I promise that you'll find that person. Someday, I promise."

Lilly nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. "Would…would it be okay if I painted some more?" she whispered. "I just…I feel like…I just feel like painting right now."

"Yes, of course," he said. "Do you mind if I put this painting on display?"

"Oh, uh, sure, just let me put my name on there," Lilly said. She took a brush and painted her initials and the date in the bottom right hand corner of the painting. Mr. Freidovsky carefully picked it up, setting it on an easel in the front of the classroom. Lilly went into the storage closet to get another canvas. She heard a knock on the classroom door and opened the closet slightly to see Miley walk up to Mr. Freidovsky.

"Mr. Freidovsky, may I ask you something?" Miley asked.

"Of course, go ahead," he said, smiling at her as he sat down behind his desk.

"How…how do you fix a broken friendship?"

He sighed. "Lillian, can you come out of the closet, please?"

Lilly's eyes widened and she grabbed the canvas she had picked out before emerging from the closet. Miley turned to her with a surprised look on her face.

"Now, you two are going to be in this workshop together, and I assure you that Professor Bilks does not tolerate abrasiveness in the groups he teaches," Mr. Freidovsky said, leaning forward. "Both of you have problems that you haven't told me, and I don't need you to tell me. I think you two need to work it out for yourselves. It's not my job to do this, but both of you are among my best students and I hate to see this happening between the two of you. So work it out. I have another class in an hour."

He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Miley and Lilly alone together. They stared at each other for a moment before Lilly set up her canvas on the easel and went to the front of the room to get paint. She started to paint, feeling Miley's gaze on her back. Forty-five minutes later, she was finished, and she stepped aside so the brunette could see what she had painted.

Miley gasped. The blonde had painted a picture of herself standing by a tree, a noose hanging from a tree branch with the black-haired girl from Lilly's earlier painting hanging from it, her feet dangling above the ground. Lilly had tears streaming down her face and she quickly turned away from Miley, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.

"Lilly, what's going on?" Miley asked softly.

"Do you know why I hate you?" Lilly asked, turning to Miley with bloodshot eyes. "Because of her." She pointed to the black-haired girl in the painting. "She…she, oh God, I can't do this."

"Tell me," Miley whispered. "I deserve to know."

"Because she killed herself!" Lilly screamed. "And it was my fault!"

She broke down, sobs shaking her body violently as she crashed to the floor. Miley rushed to her side, gathering her up in her arms and holding her as she cried. "Come on, we're getting out of here," she whispered. She pulled Lilly to her feet, cradling her in her arms and slowly walking her out of the classroom, out of the building, and to her car. "I'll be right back," she said, running back into the school. She came out a few minutes later with Lilly's canvas and she carefully put it in her trunk.

"Where are we going?" Lilly whimpered as Miley got into the driver's seat, buckled up, and put the car into gear.

"My house," Miley said. "No one will be home."

They drove to Miley's house in silence, Lilly's sobs being the only sound to break the silence. When they got there, Miley pulled Lilly's canvas out of her trunk and motioned for the blonde to follow her inside. She unlocked the door, going inside and running up the stairs two at a time, although she was careful with the canvas. Coming to her room, she pulled another key out of her pocket and unlocked the door, opening it and going inside.

She leaned Lilly's canvas carefully against the wall and went over to her window, pulling open the curtains so she could stair outside. Lilly stood in the doorway, tears still streaming down her face. "What do you want?" the blonde asked.

"Do you really hate me?" Miley asked, still facing the window.

"No," Lilly whispered. "I…I love you."

"Then what's the problem?" Miley asked, whirling around to face Lilly.

"Don't you see?" Lilly asked desperately. "That _is_ the problem! I…I _can't_ love you! Do you want to know what happened in the last relationship I was in?"

"Yes, I do, because obviously it's getting between whatever we could have," Miley snapped.

"We barely know each other!" Lilly screamed.

"But I still love you!" Miley screamed back.

The statement shocked them both into silence.

"Her name was Leann," Lilly whispered after a moment, sliding down to the ground and pulling her knees to her chest. "Leann Thymus. She was…she was amazing. There was this…this energy around her, sort of like a pull that drew people to her. Everyone loved her. And she was the most stunning girl that I had ever set my eyes on. Half of the guys in the school asked her out before I finally did. And, surprisingly, she said no to them and yes to me."

She had her eyes fixed on a piece of carpet in front of her, but she saw Miley sit down on her bed out of the corner of her eye. This was the first time she had ever said anything to anyone about what had really happened. Not even Oliver knew the whole story, and he had been her best friend for years.

"Leann…she did everything a good girlfriend was supposed to do," Lilly whispered. "She stood by me when I came out to my mom, who didn't give a damn, when I came out to Oliver, who just hugged me and told me that it was okay, and when I came out to the world, which damned me and condemned me. When I was feeling sad, she would take me out for ice cream and cheer me up. When I was mad, she would listen as I ranted about whomever or whatever was making me so upset. When I was happy, she was happy, too."

Lilly swallowed with difficulty. "We dated for a year and a half before things started to change," she whispered. "She started getting…all depressed. Said that life wasn't worth it anymore. I tried to cheer her up, but nothing worked. So I settled with staying with her every single moment of every single day to make sure that she wouldn't do anything stupid."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down. This was one of the hardest parts. She had barely come to terms with herself about it, let alone gotten herself ready to tell anyone else. Suddenly she felt someone sit down next to her and put a comforting arm around her.

"I…I took her to that place in the city," she whispered, staring straight ahead and closing her eyes again. It played out before her like a movie. "She knew where we were going and brought some…some stuff with her. A rope. A stool. And…and me. I had taken her there before. She _knew_ it was my special place. She _knew_. And she told me that she had this amazing idea. She set up the stool and…and told me to turn around because she had a surprise for me. God, I should have known. She had been depressed all that morning and the day before, and the stool and rope…"

Lilly let out a sob and she heard Miley gasp beside her. "I turned…I turned around and…the rope…she had tied it to…to the branch and…and around…and around her neck," she said trying to hold back her sobs. She squeezed her eyes shut, staying quiet for ten minutes before opening them and continuing calmly, having detached herself from the words she was about to speak, from the emotions that always came with the thoughts. She had detached herself like this so many times that one more time wouldn't hurt. "And she told me that it was my fault.

"It was my fault because I hadn't been the girlfriend she needed," she said without emotion. "I didn't treat her like she needed to be treated. She was going to die because of me. I was the cause of her committing suicide. And everyone knew it was my fault. She said that there was no other way…no other logical cause. That it would be better if I just left with her."

"Lilly…" Miley whispered.

"I tried to stop her, but she kicked the stool away and…and I watched my girlfriend suffocate to death," Lilly said, still staring straight ahead.

"It isn't your fault!" Miley said quickly, making Lilly turn her head and look at her in surprise.

"But it was," Lilly said. "And I…I couldn't forgive myself for it. Do you know how many times I tried to kill myself over the summer? How many times I tried to slit my wrists open and make myself bleed to death? Do you know how…how _frustrating_ it is to not be able to tie a damn rope around your neck and be able to kick the fucking stool away? I…I couldn't…couldn't kick…the…the fucking stool…away…"

Then it was like the dam burst, her wall cracked, and everything that she had been holding inside was let out. She collapsed onto Miley, who just pulled her close and held her, unsure of what to do except rub her back and occasionally whisper in her ear. But nothing could calm Lilly down. Just when it looked like the tears were about to dry up, she burst into sobs again.

It was something she had always drained into her art, but, for once, it was too much to paint or draw away. There weren't enough canvases, or sketchpads, or pencil sets, or paintbrushes, or paints in the world to keep something like this bottled up inside her. For once, she needed, no, she_ wanted_ someone to be there for her. To tell her that it really wasn't her fault and that no matter what happened, everything was going to turn out okay.

"Lilly, look at me," Miley whispered when Lilly had finally calmed down. The blonde turned her head and found herself staring into Miley's amber eyes. Her breath was taken away from her and she remembered what had happened the last time she had felt that way. How much her life had been ruined the last time she had fallen in love.

"I can't," Lilly whispered. "Don't you understand? I can't love you. I do, but I can't. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Miley said softly, running her fingers through Lilly's hair gently. "I'm not going to pressure you to do anything. If there's anything you need, anything you need at all, you know that I'm here for you. I know that we've only known each for a couple weeks, but I feel like I've known you my whole life."

"Please don't say something that will make me fall even more in love with you," Lilly said, tears still leaking down her face as she buried her face in Miley's shoulder. The brunette nodded, kissing her hair gently before resting her chin on the top of her head. And if Lilly had looked into Miley's at that moment, she would have seen the love, dedication, and fear showing on the brunette's face at that moment. Miley Stewart was just as afraid as Lilly was.

_**Sorry that I didn't get this up yesterday like I usually do. I was in Boston all weekend and I only got home a short while ago. Otherwise, this would have been posted as usual. Thank you for the reviews from Freudian Slips Cause Problems, spenceandash4ever, musicisinmysoul, Sophi20, AlvinFan07, and dare 121. You guys are awesome and please continue to review. To everyone else, thanks for taking time to read my stories. I really appreciate it. And REVIEW. I'll get the next chapter up on Sunday and perhaps a couple one-shots in the time between. It all depends. Once again, thank you all very much.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	9. Chapter Nine: Trying

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!!!**_

Rubbing her arm nervously, Lilly waited in the entrance hall of her house for Miley to pick her up for the art workshop at Pepperdine. She didn't know what to expect from the professor, from the other students who were going to be there, or even from herself. Since she had opened up to Miley the day before, she had been really emotional and had barely been able to say a word without feeling like she was going to burst into tears at any second.

Lights flashed across the room as Miley pulled into the driveway and Lilly opened the door, grabbing the canvases and the book bag full of sketchbooks she was bringing just in case the professor wanted to look over more of her work. Making sure that the door was locked behind her and that her key was in her pocket, she walked slowly to Miley's car, put her canvases in the back, and got in the passenger's seat.

"Hey, are you ready for this?" Miley asked, flashing Lilly a smile as the blonde buckled her seatbelt and gripped the strap of her book bag tightly in her hands. That was one of the things about Miley that Lilly loved. She never pried, asked how Lilly was doing, gave her those searching looks, or even implied that she was worried about her. Miley knew, somehow, that if Lilly wanted help or someone to talk to, she would come only when she was ready.

"I'm kind of nervous," Lilly said quietly as they backed out of her driveway.

"You're going to be fine, especially after the professor sees what else you've done," Miley said, smiling at her reassuringly.

They were both quiet.

"Miley?" Lilly whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I…" she licked her lips nervously. "I just…I want to say thank you for yesterday. Especially after how I treated you. You didn't deserve what I said to you and I was just lashing out."

"It's okay, I understand," Miley said quietly. "You…you would do the same thing for me." But it was more of a question instead of a statement. She glanced over at Lilly, who was staring straight ahead.

"Yes," Lilly whispered. "I would."

An uneasy silence reigned.

"I think we need to stay just friends!" Lilly burst out suddenly.

Miley was quiet. "Do you…why?"

Lilly glanced over at Miley nervously and then stared down at her lap. "Because there's too much," she whispered. "I feel like there's too much that's happened outside of…outside of the time that we've known each other. And it's mostly bad. At least, it is on my part. Don't get me wrong, Miley, I…I…Iloveyou, but it wouldn't be good for either of us right now."

She glanced over at Miley again to see that the brunette had a blank expression on her face. "I love you, too," Miley said quietly. "But…but if you want to just be friends, I can handle that. I completely understand where you're coming from. But I'm always going to love you, Lilly. I've loved you since the moment I set eyes on you. Before that, even. Maybe once we get to know each other…."

"Let's just keep it at this, for now," Lilly said, not allowing Miley to finish her statement.

"For now," Miley murmured, a smile playing across her lips.

Lilly didn't bother correcting her.

"Hey, we're here, but can you read these directions for me to get to the building we're supposed to be at?" Miley asked, grabbing a piece of paper from between the seats and handing it to Lilly. Lilly looked at it and read the directions out loud, directing them to a parking lot. Miley pulled into a parking space and they sat there for a few minutes.

"So…" Miley said.

"Do you wanna go in?" Lilly asked.

"Yeah, it's now or never," Miley said, taking a deep breath before unbuckling her seatbelt and getting out. Lilly unbuckled her own seatbelt and got out, swinging her book bag onto her back and getting her canvases out of the backseat. She glanced at Miley nervously and they headed towards the building entrance.

Miley opened the door for Lilly and they stepped inside the lobby. Lilly recognized Paige and walked over to her, gesturing for Miley to follow her. Paige smiled when she saw Lilly but frowned when she saw Miley walking behind her. "Hey, Lilly, are you ready for this?" she asked, smiling at the blonde.

"No, but I'm here," Lilly said, looking over her shoulder at Miley to see that the brunette was looking at Paige intently. "Miley, this is Paige. Paige, this is Miley."

Paige nodded to Miley, who inclined her head slightly. Lilly could feel the tension between the two girls and, while she didn't know what was causing it, she wanted it to stop. She stepped between them quickly.

"Everyone here for the Pepperdine High School Art Program, please come this way," a young man in his mid-twenties said. Lilly sighed in relief when Miley and Paige looked away from each other and the tension dissipated. She hiked her book bag up higher on her back and tightened her grip on her canvases before giving a nervous smile to Miley and starting forward hesitantly.

"Welcome, everyone, to the Pepperdine High School Art Program," the young man said, smiling around at the five students gathered around him. There were two boys there from other schools. They both had their attention on the man. "I'm Professor Bilks, but you can call me Ron. I'm not very formal, as you'll learn. We'll head over to the studio we'll be working in and then introduce ourselves."

He led them to a studio, flipping on the lights to reveal a room brightly lit by fluorescent lights. There were several skylights, which would brighten the room during the day without the aid of electricity. Ron spread his arms out and turned to the students, as if he was showing off the room.

"So this is the room we'll be working with for the next couple weeks," he said. "Your environment will have a great influence on your art, so don't be shy. Explore! Look around! Get familiar with your surroundings, your tools, if you didn't bring them with you, and the people who will be in here with you. I know some of you are familiar with each other, but introduce yourselves to each other! Become friends!"

Paige snorted on Lilly's left side and looked over at Miley with a disgusted expression on her face. Lilly bit her lip nervously and felt her fear rising inside her. She didn't know what she would do if something happened here, if her art was involved with everything and thrown into the multitude of things she had once found enjoyable but had been ruined by conflict and arguing.

Then a soft hand gently enveloped her right hand and squeezed it gently. She looked down to see that Miley had laced her fingers together and looked into the brunette's eyes to see understanding and…and a promise. A promise that she would do her best to not ruin this for Lilly. Then Miley's hand was gone and Lilly felt incredibly empty.

"Okay, so what we're going to do tonight is just paint what's on our minds," Ron said with a smile. "Grab an easel and there's a set of paints by each easel. I want to see your technique and what sort of style you use when you paint. Go ahead, you have an hour, go ahead and get started."

Lilly made her way to an easel and set down her canvases and book bag, looking at the paints and brushes that had been set out and examining them closely. After a few minutes of making sure that her brushes were usable, she mixed her paints and looked at the canvas. She dipped her brush in her paint and started painting.

An hour later, Lilly set her brush down, surprised that she had finished her painting so quickly. It usually took her hours at a time. She glanced over at Miley and smiled at her, biting her lip nervously as she stepped aside to show Miley what she had painted. Miley's eyes widened and she gasped when she saw what Lilly had painted.

"Lillian Truscott, right?" Ron asked, coming up beside Lilly. The blonde jumped in surprise and blushed in embarrassment as she nodded at the ground. "Hey, don't be shy. We're here to express ourselves, and it looks like you're pretty good at doing that. Who is this girl that you painted?"

The blonde bit her lip nervously before looking over at Miley briefly and staring back down at the floor. Ron followed Lilly's gaze and smiled. "Are these your paintings?" he asked, pointing at the canvases leaning against Lilly's easel. Lilly nodded. "Can I look at them?"

"Um, yeah," Lilly whispered.

He picked up the canvases and looked through them, nodding appreciatively as he set them down. "You're a very good artist," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "There's just one thing. Your view is too narrow. You only use one type of technique. Try to expand, more. Use one picture, one prompt, and experiment with it. Go outside your comfort zone. You really have some talent, Lilly, and I'm looking forward to seeing what else you can do."

"Thank you," Lilly whispered as he moved on to talk to Paige.

Half an hour later, everyone packed up and left the art classes. Lilly gathered her canvases and swung her book bag onto her back. Miley smiled at her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they walked out of the studio and out of the building to her car. "I really like your painting," Miley whispered as she turned the car on.

"Miley?" Lilly asked tentatively.

"Yes?" Miley asked, turning her eyes on Lilly.

"I, um, I really like you," Lilly said quickly and nervously. "And I think the reason that I don't want to have a relationship with you is because I'm scared. I'm scared that things will turn out the way they did with Leann. I'm scared that you're going to end up hurting yourself because of me. I'm afraid that I'm going to end up getting hurt again. And I don't want any of those things to happen. But I want…I want to give this, to give _us_ a try. I don't want to be afraid anymore, Miley."

"You don't have to be afraid," Miley whispered, leaning over to Lilly's seat and kissing her softly on the forehead. "I promise that I will do everything in my power to keep anything from hurting you ever again. Now, I can't promise that you won't get hurt, because that happens in life, but I'm going to do my best not to hurt you myself, and I will never hurt you intentionally."

Lilly nodded, her eyes fluttering shut as tears started to leak out of the corners of her eyes. "I really like you, Miley," she whispered, opening her eyes to stare straight into Miley's.

"I really like you, too," Miley whispered back, slowly leaning forward as they stared into each other's eyes. Their lips met in a soft kiss and after a second, Lilly pulled back, smiling slightly.

"Can we…can we take this slow?" she asked nervously.

"Of course, you set the pace," Miley said. She smiled reassuringly at Lilly to let her know that she wasn't angry or upset and put the car into gear, pulling forward. When she drove into Lilly's driveway, she got out of the car and helped carry Lilly's canvases to her front door.

"Um, Miley?" Lilly asked as Miley turned to leave.

"Yes?" Miley asked breathlessly, turning around quickly.

"I…I, um, was wondering if you would want to go out to dinner and a movie this Friday with me?" Lilly asked shyly.

"Yes," Miley said, a grin and a blush spreading across her face.

"Really?" Lilly asked, her eyes wide and shining with disbelief.

"Really," Miley confirmed.

"So I'll pick you up at five-thirty?" the blonde asked.

"Yup, see you tomorrow," Miley said.

Lilly leaned up and kissed Miley quickly before turning to her front door, unlocking it, and going inside. She waited until she heard Miley's car pull out of the driveway before she slid to the floor, a grin spreading across her face.

Maybe everything wasn't going to be as bad as she thought.

_**I hope you liked it. And I'm really sorry that I didn't update on Sunday. I completely take the blame for this because I'm just really a lazy person and I didn't get around to finishing this chapter until tonight. I really am sorry and I PROMISE**__**that I'll get the next chapter up on Sunday as usual. If I don't…you can review and tell me I'm a horrible person. Hahaha Speaking of reviews, thank you guys so much for reviewing. Special thanks to Freudian Slips Cause Problems, Sophie20, Sk8ter, Satan's Camaro, -7RyPtoPh4n-, AlvinFan07, Ally K00, and dare121 for reviewing. You guys are awesome. I really love hearing feedback on this. It really helps me see what everyone's thinking and how to throw another curveball at you guys! Just kidding! But I really do appreciate it, so REVIEW!!! Thank you all once again!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	10. Chapter Ten: Italian

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!!!**_

Pulling into Miley's driveway, Lilly nervously pulled the key out of the ignition and played with them before she unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. She had taken the extra car her mom owned in case of emergencies so she wouldn't have to borrow Miley's car. Lilly wanted this to be a special night for Miley and having to borrow her car would embarrass the blonde beyond measure.

She went up to Miley's door and hesitated before she softly knocked on the front door. When no one came, she knocked harder and she heard the pounding of feet on stairs before the door was yanked open to reveal a breathless Miley standing in the doorframe. "Hey, um, I need to finish getting dressed, do you wanna come in and wait while I finish up?" she asked.

"Sure," Lilly whispered, her eyes sweeping over Miley's body. The brunette was wearing a pair of jeans and a tank top that showed her tan, toned arms and showed off the curve of her body. The blonde stepped inside the front entryway and Miley closed the door behind her, running up the stairs as she yelled that she would be done in thirty seconds.

"Miles!"

Lilly jumped in surprise as Miley's dad appeared in the entryway seemingly from out of nowhere. He looked away from the stairs and blinked at her in surprise.

"Oh, it's Lilly, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Lilly said shyly, and she took his extended hand, shaking it firmly.

"You're taking my daughter out on a date tonight, aren't you?" he asked curiously, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, um, I'm taking her to Tra di Noi, she does like Italian, doesn't she?" Lilly asked anxiously.

"Tra di Noi?" Miley's dad asked in surprise. "Isn't that expensive?"

"Price isn't an issue."

"I see," he said, nodding absentmindedly.

"Then we're going to a movie afterwards," Lilly said. "She should be home by eleven, but if she isn't, I'll either have her call you or I'll call you myself to tell you. Eleven is good, right?"

"Hey, Lilly, you don't have to be nervous," he laughed, making her instantly relax. "I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: Miley really likes you. You could take her to Burger King and then take her to a birthday for a five-year-old and she would be talking about this date all week and how amazing it was. She hasn't stopped talking about you since she met you and I doubt that she'll ever stop talking about you. So relax a little. And I'm not going to bite your head off. I like you and that isn't going to change unless you hurt my little girl."

"Dad, please, don't give her the talk," Miley said, coming down the stairs. Lilly turned and gaped at her. The brunette was wearing a black skirt that showed off her tanned legs and a green shirt with sleeves that went down just past her elbows. A beautiful jade necklace was around her neck and a bracelet dangled from her wrist as she walked towards Lilly, her teeth a brilliant white against her tan skin.

"You look gorgeous," Lilly breathed.

"Thank you, you do, too," Miley said, a blush spreading across her face.

Lilly glanced down at her own outfit, a pair of black slacks and a red top. "No, you definitely look more beautiful," the blonde said.

"Okay, you two lovebirds get going," Miley's dad said, rolling his eyes. "Call me when you get to the movies and when you're on your way home. Have a good time!"

"Mr. Stewart, thank you for allowing me to take Miley out tonight," Lilly said sincerely, giving him a hesitant smile as she once again shook his hand. He just smiled at her, shook his head, and waved for her to leave with Miley.

"My dad didn't give you too much trouble, did he?" Miley asked anxiously as Lilly opened the door of her car for her to get in. She walked around to the other side and got in the driver's seat, putting the key in the ignition and starting the car.

"No, we were just talking," Lilly said, looping an arm around the back of Miley's seat as she turned to look out the back window as she backed out of the driveway. "He says that he likes me, but I'm not too sure about that."

"He really does like you," Miley said, making Lilly glance over at her in surprise. "He was really surprised when you didn't say anything about me being Hannah Montana when we had our little… tiff, but he's really impressed. And he likes you better than he's ever liked anyone else I've dated."

"Wow, really?" Lilly asked in amazement.

"Yeah, and he's going to be even more impressed now that you've thanked him for letting him take me out," Miley said, rolling her eyes. "It's going to be all he's going to be talking about for a while. Then he's going to be telling me and Jackson that that's how we should act around other people and how we should respect them and it's just going to be a pain in the butt."

"I could try to be rude the next time I pick you up," Lilly offered, making Miley laugh. "It shouldn't be too hard. I'll just ignore him."

"No, I would much rather that he gave us long lectures and liked you for being polite," Miley said. "Wait, is this where we're going?" she asked as Lilly pulled into the parking lot of Tra di Noi.

"Yeah, Italian is okay, right?" Lilly asked as she parked the car.

"Of course, it's just… Lilly, this restaurant is really expensive," Miley said as Lilly got out and opened her car door for her.

"As I told your dad, price isn't an issue," Lilly said with a smile. "Don't worry about anything. Tonight is all about you."

"Lilly…."

"Really, Miles, don't worry about it," Lilly whispered as she opened the door of the restaurant for Miley and laced their fingers together. The host stepped forward eagerly, holding two menus in his hands.

"Do you have reservations?" he asked.

"Yes, under Truscott," Lilly said, and the host's eyes widened.

"Miss Truscott, it's a pleasure to see you again," he said quickly. "Is there a table you would prefer to sit at?"

"No, just whatever you have," Lilly said. The host's smile faltered for a second before he quickly recovered, nodding as he turned around and led them to a secluded table in the back of the restaurant, away from the rest of the tables and from the hectic noise that permeated the dining atmosphere.

"Here you are," he said, and Lilly pulled out a chair for Miley, waiting for her to sit down before she sat down herself.

"Will Mrs. Truscott be joining you?" the host asked.

"No, it's just the two of us," Lilly said as she picked up the menu in front of her.

"Okay, your waiter will be with you shortly," the host said, bowing himself away from the table. Miley looked at her curiously and Lilly sighed.

"I suppose you're wondering how they know me here," she said.

"Well, sort of," Miley whispered. "I mean, they're treating you like you're royalty. Is there something I should know? Are you, like, heir to an enormous fortune or something?"

"Sort of," Lilly said, and Miley stared at her expectantly. "Okay, my mom owns a couple companies, so she has to travel a lot, but whenever she's in town, we usually go out at least once for a meal and we've been here a couple times. The food is really good and the servers have learned that if we get really good service, then she tips really well, and if we don't get good service, then she complains to management and someone gets fired. They automatically assume that the same goes for me since I've never been here without her."

"What companies does your mom own?"

"Some music labels and stuff like that," Lilly said. "I'm sorry, but do you mind if we don't talk about your mom? It's just… we don't have the best relationship in the world and I don't really like to talk about it."

"Of course," Miley said. She tentatively picked up the menu in front of her and opened it, her eyes widening as she saw the prices of the food. Lilly watched her with an amused smile, raising an eyebrow when the brunette looked up with her mouth gaping open in astonishment.

"Would you like to order your own appetizer or do you want to share something?" she asked Miley.

"Lilly, are you sure…?"

"Miley, please, stop worrying, you're starting to worry me," Lilly said. "Would you rather share an appetizer?"

"Yeah, I think that'd be best," Miley said, sighing. "Um, do you have anything in mind? I really don't know what to order."

"I was looking at the Bruschetta Con Gamberi Alla Griglia," Lilly said, setting her menu down and pointing to the item she was talking about. "It's grilled bread topped with cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic, grilled shrimp, lemon and olive oil. Does that sound okay to you? I've had it once before and it tasted really good."

"Okay, and I thought that the Lasagna Bolognese looked really good," Miley said.

"It's delicious," Lilly said, grinning. "But I thinking I'm going to have the Ravioli Rosa. I've never had that before, which is surprising considering that I love ravioli."

A young man with a notepad and a pencil walked up to their table. "Good evening, my name is Michel and I will be serving you today," he said. "May I get you some drinks?"

"Uh, yeah, may I have just water?" Lilly asked.

"Of course," he said, scribbling something down on his notepad. "And you?" he asked, turning to Miley.

"Um, may I have a cherry coke, please?" the brunette asked shyly.

"Yes, of course," Michel said, scribbling down another note on his notepad. "Are you ready to order or do you need a few more minutes?"

"I think we can order," Lilly said, glancing at Miley for confirmation. The brunette nodded. "Okay, um, for appetizers, we're going to share the Bruschetta Con Gamberi Alla Griglia, and for the main course, I'll have the Ravioli Rosa."

"And I'll have the Lasagna Bolognese," Miley said, folding up her menu and setting it on top of Lilly's folded menu.

"Will that be all for now?" he asked, taking the menus.

"Yes, thank you," Lilly said, smiling as he bowed himself away. She leaned forward on the table and looked at Miley. "So what's up between you and Paige?" she asked.

Over the past week, Lilly had been able to feel the tension between Paige and Miley whenever the three of them were together, which was mostly during the art lessons at Pepperdine. Lilly could tell that Miley was doing her best not to get in an argument with the younger girl, but it was like Paige was making an effort to step on Miley's toes. There had been multiple times when she had interrupted when Miley was talking to Lilly in order to pull the blonde away to her easel and ask her what she thought of her art. Lilly hadn't known what to do.

"I honestly have no idea," Miley admitted. "She just seems to have a vendetta against me. I've never met her in my life and I don't think I've ever spoken a word to her and I know I haven't said anything about her that could make her hate me. She just… seems to naturally hate me and I have no idea why. Where do you know her from?"

"One of the days I skipped class to paint, she was in Mr. Freidovsky's class and commented on how she liked my painting or something like that," Lilly said, shaking her head. "I can't even remember exactly what she said."

"Well, she seems to want to be permanently attached to you," Miley said.

"Do you think that's it?" Lilly asked. "She could just be jealous of you?"

"It's possible," Miley said, shrugging. "I mean, I'm constantly hanging out with you and there's barely a moment on school when we aren't together. She could have a crush on you."

"On me?" Lilly asked, wrinkling her nose in confusion.

"You make it seem like you're the most disgusting person in the world," Miley laughed. "I don't see why she wouldn't like you. You're smart, beautiful, talented, funny, and… well, you're just Lilly."

"Thanks," Lilly mumbled, looking down at the table as she blushed.

Michel came with their drinks and appetizer, setting the large plate with the food on it in the middle of the table and then two smaller plates and the drinks in front of Miley and Lilly. "Is there anything else you'll be needing?" he asked eagerly. Both Lilly and Miley shook their heads, Lilly entirely focused on the food that had just been set on the table and Miley entirely focused on Lilly. He smiled at them and nodded before walking away.

Lilly divided up the appetizer equally and ate her food surprisingly slowly for her. She managed to keep all the food on her plate or in her mouth, not spilling anything on her clothes. Miley watched her in amusement as she carefully ate, making sure not to spill anything.

"You're too cute," Miley finally said, making Lilly choke in surprise. The blonde managed to get her food down her throat with a drink of water and looked up with wide eyes.

"Why in the world would you say that I'm cute?" Lilly asked.

The brunette shrugged. "You just are," she said, her cheeks flaming red.

"I honestly don't know what to say to that," Lilly admitted.

Twenty minutes later, Michel came back to take away their plate and serve their main dishes. Lilly cleaned her plate efficiently, finishing off what Miley was unable to stomach. When the check came, Lilly didn't allow Miley to look at it, sliding her card into Michel's hand and refusing to tell Miley how much the total meal had cost.

"Are you ready to go?" Lilly asked, standing up.

"Yeah, I think so," Miley said, standing as well. Lilly threw a tip on the table and reached out for Miley's hand, lacing their fingers together.

"Come again, Miss Truscott," the host said.

"You know, I think I will," Lilly murmured to Miley, and the brunette smiled.

_**There you go. Thank you for the reviews from: AllyK00, AlvinFan07, 20kels, dare121, -7RyPtoPh4n-, and Freudian Slips Cause Problems. You guys are awesome. Please keep up the awesome reviews and I'll get the next chapter up next Sunday. Thank you all so much and REVIEW!!!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	11. Chapter Eleven: Mother

There was a knock on Lilly's front door and the blonde hurried to open it, smiling when she saw Miley standing on the front step, shielding herself from the rain with a black umbrella. "Hey, come on in for a minute while I grab something to eat really quick," Lilly said, stepping aside so Miley could come in.

"Lilly, who's at the door?"

The blonde turned to see her mom standing in the entrance from the hallway to the foyer. She had her arms crossed over her chest and she was dressed in a professional business pantsuit. Her eyebrows were raised as she looked questioningly from Lilly to Miley and back again. "Who is this?"

"Mom, this is Miley, my girlfriend," Lilly pronounced boldly.

Her mom directed her searching gaze on Miley. "What's your full name?"

"Miley Rae Stewart, ma'am," the brunette answered.

"And what grade are you in?"

"I'm in my junior year."

"Do you have any colleges in mind, yet?" Lilly's mom questioned.

"Not yet, ma'am, but I've started looking at areas of study I might be interested in," Miley replied. Lilly bit her lip nervously as she hoped that this would be the end of her mom's interrogation. "My father is in the music industry, so I'm considering going into a profession in music and having my dad help me along a little."

"That's… interesting," Lilly's mother said.

"We have to get going to school," Lilly interrupted. "Come on, Miley, we don't want to be late."

"But…."

"Come on," Lilly said firmly, her eyes connecting with Miley's and telling her without words that staying any longer would be a bad idea. The brunette nodded quickly and went out to her car.

"Lilly," her mom said, following her as she walked into the kitchen and took a couple breakfast bars from the cupboard beside the refrigerator. "Why are you with this girl? She doesn't seem to have any goals, and while her father is supposedly in the music industry, she doesn't seem to have any connections in high places. She's not going anywhere in life. What happened to Leann? She was a nice girl, had goals in life, her father was important, and her mother was agreeable."

Lilly paused in the doorway from the kitchen to the foyer. "Leann's dead," she said shortly before she slipped her shoes on, shouldered her book bag, and went out to Miley's car. She got in the passenger's seat and slammed the door shut, angrily buckling her seatbelt as Miley backed out of the driveway.

"You're upset, what's wrong?" Miley asked softly after a few minutes.

"She freaking asked me why I was with you when I could be with Leann," Lilly growled, pounding her clenched fist on her knee. "I mean, she's my own mother and she didn't even have the decency to know that my ex-girlfriend was dead! Then she goes and insults my current girlfriend! I hate her!"

"Don't say that," Miley whispered.

The blonde then realized that she had never heard Miley talk about her mom. She looked at Miley. "I'm sorry," she murmured.

"You know what, what do you say we just take a day off?" Miley asked, slowing down and pulling into the turning lane. "There's been a lot of stress recently and I don't think any of our teachers are going to miss us for one day. So how about we just take a day, you and me, and hang out? My treat. I'll cancel my Hannah CD signing tonight and you can sleep over and it'll be a real girl's day out."

"Miles, we can't miss school and you can't miss a CD signing," Lilly sighed.

"Hey, I haven't missed a single day of school yet and I haven't missed a Hannah day in my life. I think it's okay to do this in extenuating circumstances. I'll call my dad and he'll get everything at school taken care of for us."

"Okay, fine, but promise me that we won't do this every time something like this happens with my mom, because I have a feeling that it's going to be happening a lot," Lilly relented, leaning against the window as Miley turned onto the road leading to her house. "She's going to be home more often in these next couple months because most of her business is going to be taking place in Los Angeles."

"Let's forget about all this today and just have some fun," Miley said, pulling into her driveway. "My dad just took off to coordinate some Hannah stuff, so I'll call him really quick. Come on in and after I get off the phone with him, we'll figure out some things we can do."

Lilly followed Miley inside, sitting down on the couch as she watched Miley talk with her dad on the phone. A couple minutes later, Miley hung up and set her phone on the kitchen table. She went and sat down next to Lilly, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders and pulling her close.

"I love you, you know that, right?" she murmured.

"Yeah, I love you, too," Lilly answered, snuggling into her. "So what do you have planned out for our day? I know that you already have a couple ideas and you're going to end up using one of them."

"What do you say that we take some of your paintings to that art show that's supposed to open tonight and see if they'll display them?" Miley asked, smiling down at Lilly, who had a shocked expression on her face. "Mr. Friedovsky wanted to start having your artwork circulate around the area and Professor Bilks specifically mentioned it to you, remember?"

"You'd really do that for me?" Lilly asked in an awed voice.

"Of course, Hannah already had a few of her art friends scope it out and they said that it's run by some pretty reputable people," Miley said. "All we have to do is take your artwork there and the guy running the thing will look it over and probably display some of your pieces."

"Oh my God, I can't believe you're doing this for me!" Lilly exclaimed, kissing Miley full on the mouth. Then she deflated. All of her artwork was at her house, and chances were that her mom was still there. They wouldn't be able to go back and get any of her pieces. "But all my stuff is at my house…."

"Except for the stuff that's here at my house," Miley said with a smile, and Lilly's eyes widened when she remembered that she had left many of her paintings at Miley's house after they had come back from the art class at Pepperdine the night before.

"Miley, you're a lifesaver," Lilly exclaimed, a grin spreading across her face as she kissed the brunette with fervor. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too," Miley laughed. "Now let's grab your paintings and head out."

_**I'm sorry that this is late, but I had a butt load of work to do yesterday. I was up until midnight finishing it up. And I'm sorry this is so short, but this is sort of a filler chapter and the next one is going to be longer, I promise. There's just a bunch of stuff that's going to be happening and I wanted another sort of happy little chapter in here before things got really dramatic. Thanks for the reviews from: AllyK00, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, -7RyPtoPh4n-, AlvinFan07, 20kels, Sophie20, Jamiecat2013, and dare 121. You guys really are awesome and are the ones who keep me writing this story. Thank you all so much and next update will be next Sunday.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


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